Trump 'Little Bit Disappointed' Zelenskyy Hasn't Read Latest Peace Draft

President Donald Trump, appearing on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night, said he was "a little bit disappointed" in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not yet reading the text of Washington's latest proposed peace plan for the Russia-Ukraine war.

Trump said Zelenskyy's top Ukrainian officials "love it," and "Russia is fine with it," but stressed that Zelenskyy himself had not reviewed the document as of several hours before the event.

"We've been speaking to President [Vladimir] Putin, and we've been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including President Zelenskyy, and I have to say that I'm a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn't yet read the proposal – that was as of a few hours ago," Trump said on the red carpet.

"His people love it, but he has it. Russia's fine with it.

"I'm not sure that Zelenskyy is fine with it. His people love it. But he hasn't read it, so someday you'll explain that one to me."

The president offered the foreign-policy critique while moving quickly between questions on entertainment, culture, and U.S. policy during a lengthy press gaggle outside the gala.

Trump — who became the first president to host the Kennedy Center Honors — spent much of the media scrum highlighting the center's renovation, which he said his administration "saved," citing more than $100 million raised for the building's restoration.

He repeatedly emphasized the venue's acoustic quality and architectural heritage, promising that ongoing upgrades would make it "better than it was from day one."

On domestic matters, Trump defended his tariff authority amid an upcoming Supreme Court ruling, arguing that the current system provides essential national security flexibility.

He also noted ongoing negotiations with Russia and Ukraine, saying the conflict has proven "very tough, very nasty," with high monthly casualties.

Trump praised honorees including actor Sylvester Stallone and the rock band Kiss and jabbed at past awards show hosts, saying he intended to take a more relaxed, TV host Johnny Carson–style approach: "You have to be yourself."

The red carpet line, Trump said, was "bigger than it's ever been," crediting renewed national optimism: "We have a country that's the talk of the world again."

Zelenskyy said Saturday he had a "substantive phone call" with the American officials engaged in the talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He said he had been given an update over the phone by U.S. and Ukrainian officials at the talks.

"Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace," Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

Trump's criticism of Zelenskyy came as Russia on Sunday welcomed the Trump administration's new national security strategy in comments by the Kremlin spokesman published by Russia's TASS news agency.

Dmitry Peskov said the updated strategic document, which spells out the administration's core foreign policy interests, was largely in line with Moscow's vision.

"There are statements there against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and building good relations," he said, adding that Russia hopes this would lead to "further constructive cooperation with Washington on the Ukrainian settlement."

The document released Friday by the White House said the U.S. wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core U.S. interest to "reestablish strategic stability with Russia."

Speaking on Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Trump's outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said efforts to end the war were in "the last 10 meters."

He said a deal depended on the two outstanding issues of "terrain, primarily the Donbas," and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Russia controls most of Donbas, its name for the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, which, along with two southern regions, it illegally annexed three years ago.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and is not in service. It needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.

Kellogg, who is due to leave his post in January, was not present at the talks in Florida.

Separately, officials said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelenskyy in London on Monday.

As the three days of talks wrapped up, Russian missile, drone, and shelling attacks overnight and Sunday killed at least four people in Ukraine.

A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages. Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine's biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.

Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call "weaponizing" the cold.

Three people were killed and 10 others wounded Sunday in shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, according to the regional prosecutor's office.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.