Svitlana Moronets

Nov 21, 2025

As reports emerge that US and Russian officials have quietly drawn up a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine – without Ukraine – the important question is not just what the deal includes, but why Volodymyr Zelensky is being pressured to accept it on such an aggressive timeline.

Since Donald Trump’s return to office, the Ukrainian President’s hand has never looked weaker. A sprawling corruption scandal in the country’s energy sector has sown discord inside his government and shaken the confidence of Ukraine’s allies, while Russian forces edge closer to capturing the eastern cities of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad. Hungry for a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump has found the perfect moment to strike – and Zelensky has now been given one week to sign an agreement tailored to Vladimir Putin’s wishes. According to Reuters, the US has threatened to cut intelligence-sharing and weapons supplies for Ukraine unless Zelensky approves the framework of the deal by next Thursday.

The plan, drafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russia’s chief negotiator Kirill Dmitriev, repeats the same old Russian demands. Ukrainian forces must withdraw from parts of the Donetsk region they still control. Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk will be recognised as de facto Russian. The size of the Ukrainian army must be cut in half and Russian must be recognised as an official language. The European fighter jets Ukraine received will be moved to Poland. Ukraine must enshrine in its constitution that it will not join Nato and Nato will be banned from stationing peacekeeping troops in Ukraine. Russia will receive full amnesty for its war crimes, along with other concessions Zelensky is being asked to make.

What concessions Putin will make, beyond ordering his troops to stop murdering Ukrainians, remain unclear. For its role in brokering the deal, the US will take 50 per cent of the profits from £76 billion of frozen Russian assets, which will then be used for reconstruction projects in Ukraine. Trump’s eagerness to profit from rebuilding the wartorn country looks spectacularly cynical given that, since the start of the invasion in 2022, Ukraine has suffered more than £450 billion in damage.

Washington claims that the peace plan will grant Ukraine Nato-style security guarantees, which are set to last for ten years with the option of renewal. Yet, in its current form, the agreement does not oblige the US to provide direct military assistance, with sources telling the Wall Street Journal that the Trump administration will focus instead on logistical support, intelligence-sharing and ‘other steps deemed appropriate’. In Ukraine, the offer is widely seen as a shameful attempt to convince Zelensky to sign the peace deal sooner.

Zelensky, who last night held an emergency meeting with his parliamentary faction, has said that the coming week will be difficult. However, he has assured politicians that he won’t surrender Ukraine’s national interests. In the coming days, Kyiv will prepare its own peace proposals with European allies, arguing that any settlement must safeguard Ukraine’s sovereignty and use the current frontline as the baseline for negotiations. Next week, he will present his counterpoints during a call with Trump.

‘Ukraine will do everything to ensure that no one in the world can say we are the ones supposedly undermining diplomacy,’ Zelensky said in his evening address to Ukrainians last night. ‘Ukraine needs peace. A real peace – one that will not be broken by a third invasion. A dignified peace – with terms that respect our independence, our sovereignty, and the dignity of the Ukrainian people.’