In response to the White House’s proposal to end the war in Ukraine, critics say they will allow the Kremlin much of what they want, Ukrainian leadership has drafted a counter offer.
Under the plan acquired by the New York Times, there is no limit to the size of the Ukrainian army, but the US-backed “European Security Forces” deployed on Ukrainian territory to ensure security, and frozen Russian assets will be used to repair the damage caused by Ukraine during the war.
These three provisions could be non-starters for the Kremlin, but some of the Ukrainian plan suggest a search for a compromise. For example, there is no mention of Ukraine completely reclaiming all the territory seized by Russia, or of completely regaining its claim to Ukraine to NATO, two issues that President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he has not negotiated for a long time.
Trump flew to Rome on Friday and attended Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday. Zelensky had similar plans, but his spokesman said on Friday that it depends on the situation in Ukraine.
In a social media post after landing in Rome, Trump said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” and urged both sides to meet in person. Earlier in the day, he said he and Mr Zelensky could potentially meet the funeral bystanders. A senior Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that if Zelensky went to Rome, he might personally try to present Trump with a Ukrainian counter-proposition proposal.
“There could be a very important meeting in the coming days. A meeting that should be close to Ukraine’s silence,” Zelensky said on Friday in a statement that is characteristically less optimistic when compared to the tone of this week’s earlier statement.
The meeting between the two leaders comes as Trump and Vice President JD Vance denounced the Ukrainian president in a televised showdown in an oval office since Zelensky’s miserable visit to the White House in February.
It also follows days of condemnation between Ukrainian leaders over the outline of the White House and Russia peace agreement.
Zelensky rejected this week the White House proposal this week that would allow the US to recognize Russia’s control over the Crimea Peninsula, which the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014. Trump accused Zelensky of being “inflammatory” and said he refused to praise the White House’s demands in the “killing sector.”
Despite the Lancers, it appears there is still room for concession between Washington and Kiev, but their position is barely on the stone.
It remains unknown what Moscow will accept.
Ukraine’s latest proposal does not require, for example, Ukrainian membership in NATO (which vehemently opposes Moscow) to be guaranteed. Instead, “Ukraine’s joining NATO depends on consensus among members of the alliance.”
In his speech in London and Paris, American officials reiterated Trump’s intention to oppose Ukrainian NATO membership, but they told Ukrainian counterparts that if this position is different, they would not detain a future US president.
“The next US administration could have decided to turn Ukraine into NATO,” according to a person at a conference in Paris last week, the American told the Ukrainians. US officials said they understand that Ukraine will not accept restrictions by joining NATO.
And when the White House became the future shape of the Ukrainian army, it took Ukraine, not Russia. The Kremlin requires that Russia itself, as well as Europe’s largest and most militantly rigid troops, be subject to strict restrictions on their size and capabilities. Trump administration officials told Ukrainians they would not support such restrictions.
And while Trump and Vance expressed this week that they were ready to recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea, Americans repeatedly made clear that they would not require the Ukrainians to do so in Kiev, and did not expect Europeans to follow the American lead.
Still, despite Trump’s claim that “we’re pretty close,” the deal appears to have a long way to go. All aspects agree that Russians and Ukrainians must stop shooting each other before serious peace talks begin, but the ceasefire still appears elusive.
Hours after Trump ransacked Zelensky for not supporting the White House peace proposal this week, Russia launched an attack on Kiev, which killed at least 12 people and injured 90 people. The attack prompted Putin’s unusual responsibilities from Trump, but similar attacks, including those that slammed the Smee city in the eastern city of Palm Sunday and killed 34, minimising the American response.
Russia refused to comply with the 30-day ceasefire. This was demanded by the Trump administration, and Ukraine agreed. Even the one-day ceasefire that Putin proposed to mark Easter had both sides accused of continuing to fight.
Next comes the issue of territoriality.
Since Putin’s invasion in February 2022, Russian troops have occupied a significant proportion of Ukrainian territory, mainly in the country’s eastern Donbas region, while land in the southern part links Russian territory with Crimea. The Kremlin has ruled out Putin from abandoning any of its territory, including most of the four states of the four Ukrainian provinces that are now part of Russia.
In their proposal, Ukrainians say their country should “completely restore” without specifying what it means. Zelensky has long said that the ultimate goal of his administration was to revive all the territory that made up Ukraine when it declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but Kiev’s latest proposal, including Crimea, appears to be deliberately vague in this regard.
“The territorial issue could be discussed after a complete and unconditional ceasefire,” the Ukrainian proposal states.
Trump administration officials have said it is Zelensky’s unrealistic goal of ousting Russian troops out of all of these occupied territory. The American proposal would accept de facto Russian rule over these occupied territories. Ukraine and its European partners say it will reward Russia’s attacks.
This would be a painful concession for Ukrainians, but the Trump administration has so far refused to acquiesce the demands of all Russia’s territorial areas. For example, the White House refused to accompany Russia’s demand that Putin declare a part of Russia, along with Russia’s demand that Ukraine be retreating from all four Ukraine states.
Consulting participants said the White House position was “an unreasonable and unattainable demand that the United States does not support.”
This week, Vance said the US would leave consultations if both parties disagree with a “freezing” territory while standing now.
US officials later explained that while the total amount of Russian-controlled territory is unlikely to change in future negotiations, Ukrainian officials have made it clear that they intend to propose a territorial swap to improve the country’s defensive status. Trump administration officials have personally assured the Ukrainians that they will fight for the swap, but have said they cannot guarantee that Russia will go with them.
