US President Donald Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday to accept his 28-point peace proposal by Thanksgiving, describing it as both “good” and “necessary” to bring an end to the nearly four-year-long war between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking outside the White House, Trump told reporters that if Zelenskyy refused to accept the plan he could “fight his little heart out.” When pressed on whether this was his final proposal, he clarified that it was not, and added that the conflict needed to be resolved one way or another, with the US hoping for a peaceful outcome.
Trump has been urging Ukraine to sign on to the plan by Thursday. He repeated his long-standing claim that the war would not have begun at all had he been president in early 2022, Indian Express reported.
The peace proposal, crafted by the Trump administration, contains several major conditions: Russia would be allowed to retain more Ukrainian territory than it currently controls; Ukraine would be required to reduce the size of its military; and Kyiv would have to formally give up its ambition to join NATO.
At the same time, reports—including one from Axios—suggest that the plan includes a Western security guarantee for Ukraine. The guarantee is said to be modelled on NATO’s Article 5, meaning the US and European allies would commit to treating an attack on Ukraine as an attack on the entire “transatlantic community.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the document was prepared in Washington but incorporated feedback from Russia and, to some extent, Ukraine. Rubio indicated that both sides had provided input during the process.
Zelenskyy, in an earlier video statement addressing the proposal, said Ukraine was being confronted with a very difficult decision—choosing either to risk losing its dignity or to risk jeopardising relations with a key partner, and weighing the challenges of accepting the 28 points against the hardship of enduring another harsh winter.