Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that although the U.S. has not issued an ultimatum with fixed dates on its peace plan to end the war with Russia, it does want "full clarity on where we stand with this agreement by Christmas."
Ukraine reportedly delivered to the U.S. earlier Thursday a revised 20-point peace plan that includes "some new ideas" regarding territories and control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Russia has insisted on maintaining control of the plant.
"There were no specific ultimatum frameworks or dates," Zelenskyy told reporters Thursday, according to Ukrainska Pravda. "The fact that everyone wants to end this as soon as possible is true. The U.S. wants to end it faster – we hear this from them.
"I think they really wanted, and perhaps still want, to have full clarity on where we stand with this agreement by Christmas. For us, the result matters. Of course, we would like it earlier, but the result is what matters."
Zelenskyy's comments counter a Tuesday report by The Financial Times that the Trump administration had given Zelenskyy days to respond to a proposed peace deal, with a person familiar with the timeline saying that President Donald Trump hoped for a deal agreed to "by Christmas."
The biggest gap in securing peace involves territory, Axios reported. Zelenskyy confirmed that the U.S. still wants Ukraine to agree to leave the Donbas region entirely but has now suggested that Russia would not advance into that ceded territory and would instead leave it as a "free economic zone."
Zelenskyy said the U.S. does not know who would govern that territory or how Russian forces would be prevented from moving into it.
"It is probably fair to ask: 'If someone is supposed to pull back on one side, as they want from the Ukrainians, why does the other side in the war not pull back the same distance in the opposite direction?'" he said, according to Axios.
Ukraine has not accepted the proposal, Zelenskyy said, and continues to believe the fighting should stop along the current lines.
He also said that the U.S. proposal calls for Russia to pull back from "some pockets of our regions," but that in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, Russia said, "we stay where we are."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.