Ukrainian President Zelensky is rushing to meet with Donald Trump and finalize a peace deal to end the war, following significant changes to the President’s initial 28-point peace proposal. While the Kremlin was initially receptive to the proposal, Russian officials have said the changes are unacceptable.
Zelensky’s Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak, told Axios that the Ukrainian leader wants to meet with Trump over the Thanksgiving holiday to finalize a joint peace plan as soon as possible. “I hope the visit of President Zelensky will take place as soon as possible, because … it will be help President Trump to continue his historical mission to end this war,” he said.
Yermak continued, “Because [Trump] can say: ‘Look, this is confirmed and agreed, our position with the Ukrainians. We support it, and we continue now to speak with the Russians.'”
Trump’s initial 28-point proposal included Kiev ceding the Donbas and portions of southern Ukraine to Moscow. Ukraine would also be required to never join NATO. Kiev would be allowed to join the European Union, and some frozen Russian funds would be used to rebuild Ukraine.
On Sunday, the Guardian reported that significant changes were made to Trump’s initial proposal. Nine of the points in the Trump plan were dropped, and major alterations were made to others.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that Moscow was prepared for talks on Trump’s initial proposal. “We have it; we received it through unofficial channels. It wasn’t sent to us officially. However, just as the [Russian] president said, we are ready to discuss its content because there are a number of issues that require clarification,” he said. “Our American colleagues have not yet provided us with the version the media are speculating about.”
Lavrov added, “The situation will be fundamentally different” if the new version strays from understandings reached between Trump and President Vladimir Putin during the Alaska summit in August.
