President Donald Trump's envoys have given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only days to respond to a proposed peace deal that would require Ukraine to accept territorial losses in exchange for unspecified U.S. security guarantees, with one person familiar with the timeline saying Trump wants an agreement "by Christmas."
Zelenskyy told European leaders that he was pushed during a two-hour phone call with Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, to make a quick decision, reports the Financial Times on Tuesday.
Officials familiar with the talks said that the Ukrainian leader told Witkoff and Kushner that he needs more time to consult with allies in Europe before he responds to Washington's proposal, as Kyiv is concerned that Western unity will be fractured if the United States moves forward without support from Europe.
"To be honest, the Americans are looking for a compromise today," Zelenskyy told reporters in a WhatsApp briefing Monday evening.
One Western official described Ukraine as caught between demands it cannot accept on its territory and a U.S. position it cannot reject.
Zelenskyy met leaders from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom on Monday, where German Chancellor Friedrich Merz underscored the urgency at the start of talks at 10 Downing Street, saying the leaders had convened to discuss "the upcoming days," adding, "Because this could be a decisive time for all of us."
On Tuesday evening, Zelenskyy said he was working "very actively" on the components of a deal to end the war.
"The Ukrainian and European components have already been worked out in more detail, and we are ready to present them to our partners in America," Zelenskyy said. "Together with the American side, we expect to make the possible steps as effective and as quickly as possible."
He also said any durable peace would still depend on Russia's willingness to halt the fighting.
"And as our partners in the negotiating teams rightly note, everything depends on whether Russia is ready to take effective steps to stop the bloodshed and prevent the war from flaring up again," he said.
Witkoff and Kushner met with Ukraine's negotiators in Miami last week for three days of talks.
Zelenskyy was represented by Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, and Andriy Hnatov, the chief of the general staff.
Zelenskyy has suggested progress was made in revising an original 28-point U.S. peace plan that he said was drafted with significant Russian input.
He said the plan initially included several "anti-Ukrainian" provisions he would not accept, but that it has since been reduced to 20 points and is now more favorable to Kyiv.
Officials said Zelenskyy also warned European leaders that he feared the European Union could abandon a proposed "reparations loan" to Ukraine backed by frozen Russian central bank assets, largely due to concerns about upsetting Washington and jeopardizing support for European defense and security guarantees.
In an interview with Politico on Monday, Trump was asked whether he had set a timeline for Zelenskyy to agree to a deal and said that he had offered a new draft of a peace plan that Zelenskyy had not reviewed yet, but that some Ukrainian officials liked.
"Well, he's gonna have to get on the ball and start accepting things," Trump said. "He's losing."
Russian forces have recently intensified missile and drone attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure and have made steady, though costly, gains in the southeast.
In the Donetsk region, which Russia and the United States are pressing Ukraine to concede as part of a peace settlement, Moscow's forces have captured much of the strategic stronghold of Pokrovsk and are threatening the nearby town of Myrnohrad.
Ukrainian officials told the Financial Times that Russian President Vladimir Putin has falsely claimed full control of those cities in an effort to persuade Trump that the Russian advance cannot be stopped.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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