Trump gives Ukrainian president Thanksgiving deadline to respond to peace plan

Thursday of next week. That is the deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump for his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to respond to a 28-point peace plan drawn up between Washington and Moscow to end the war. Speaking to Fox Radio, the president said that next Thursday, Thanksgiving, would be an “appropriate time” for Kyiv to decide whether to accept the proposal, which would force it to cede territory to Russia, a red line for Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned in a message to the nation on Friday that the proposal is putting the country at a historic crossroads: “Either losing dignity, or risk losing a key partner. Either 28 difficult points or an extremely complicated winter.”

The 28-point plan drawn up by Washington and Moscow to end the war has been met with dismay in Ukraine. One source of optimism in Kyiv is that, according to Zelenskiy, the document is still under negotiation. The source of pessimism is that the draft seems to confirm that U.S. President Donald Trump is not only yielding to the interests of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, but also intends to extract even more economic benefit from Ukraine’s weakened position.

“Today is one of the most difficult moments in our history,” Zelenskiy acknowledged, moments before receiving a call from U.S. Vice President J. D. Vance, according to Reuters. Zelenskiy promised to work quickly and constructively with the United States on a peace plan to end the war with Russia, but warned that he would not betray his country’s national interests.

Asked by Fox Radio host Brian Kilmeade about the fact that the plan contemplates giving Russia territory that Ukraine has not yet lost, Trump replied that Kyiv will lose it “in a short period of time. They’re losing land.”

The leak of the agreement between Washington and Moscow has caused a storm in Kyiv. The document was exclusively revealed by the U.S. media outlet Axios. It was drafted by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy for Russia and the Middle East, and Kirill Dmitriev, a close confidant of Putin. According to the U.S. media, the document was partially agreed upon with Rustem Umerov, a key figure in the Ukrainian president’s inner circle and the current secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council.

Umerov denied on Friday that he participated in or supported the document. His statements came after The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post reported that Umerov had proposed one of the most controversial points: that both sides would accept an amnesty for any crimes committed during the war. The Russian army has killed more than 14,500 civilians in the nearly four years of conflict.

Ukraine would thus agree not to seek justice for war crimes. In exchange, it would receive $100 billion [€86.8 billion] of Russian funds frozen abroad to rebuild the country. The U.S. would lead the management of these investments, with the American companies involved receiving 50% of the profits, the document states.

Despite the severe defeat these measures would represent for Ukraine, they would not be red lines. What would be unacceptable to Kyiv are three of the clauses included in the text: recognizing the provinces of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk (the latter two forming the Donbas region) as sovereign Russian territory; a military withdrawal from the 25% of the Donetsk region still under its control (this area would become demilitarized but would still be considered Russian territory); and limiting its armed forces to 600,000 troops. The Ukrainian army currently has nearly one million troops, compared to the 200,000 it had before the invasion began.

The Ukrainian president has maintained a cautious tone in his statements regarding the U.S. proposal in recent hours. “It must be a plan that guarantees a real and dignified peace,” Zelenskiy stated on Friday after a telephone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The Ukrainian leader also reported that they are working with the document prepared by Washington in coordination with allied countries.

The 28-point plan not only recognizes Russia’s right to conquered territory, but also includes a clause warning that if Ukraine attempts to occupy Russian territory, it will lose U.S. support. If Russia launches another invasion, “in addition to [the U.S.] launching a coordinated and decisive military response, all global sanctions will be reinstated, recognition of the new territory will be revoked, and all other benefits of this agreement will be revoked.”

The document, as reported by Axios and other media outlets, also specifies that Ukraine will be punished if it fires missiles “against Moscow or St. Petersburg.” The converse—that Russia be penalized if it fires missiles at Ukrainian cities—is not included in the text.

Despite Dmitriev’s acknowledged involvement in drafting the document, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Friday that the document is a U.S. initiative and that Putin does not yet have “any official document” on his desk.

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