Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scrambling to resist a potentially humiliating peace deal put forward by U.S. officials just as the Ukrainian president faces growing domestic pressure to ditch his most trusted aide in the war against Russia.
Zelenskyy has received signals from the U.S. that he should accept the deal drawn up in consultation with Moscow, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified because the matter is sensitive. President Donald Trump supports the plan, according to a senior U.S. official.
Zelenskyy will hold talks in Kyiv on Thursday with U.S. military officials led by Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll. The delegation, which has met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, will examine ways to force Russia to end the fighting, according to people familiar with the matter.
The latest attempt by the Trump administration to revive negotiations involves a 28-point plan that’s modeled on the Gaza ceasefire. It outlines known Russian demands for concessions that Kyiv has repeatedly said are unacceptable and that have so far hindered any breakthrough in efforts to reach a ceasefire.
The proposal includes demands for Ukraine to cede territory in its eastern Donbas region to the Kremlin, the removal of sanctions from Russia, and a halt to war-crimes investigations, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Ukraine would also have to accept limits on the size of its army, the person said, asking not to be identified because the issue is sensitive. That would leave it vulnerable to any renewed offensive ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who endorsed a previous peace accord with Kyiv over eastern Ukraine before starting the 2022 invasion.
European diplomats expressed skepticism about any deal, noting that Putin has a track record of appearing to accept overtures when under pressure. The Kremlin’s trying to stop U.S. sanctions targeting Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC, from coming into force on Friday, people familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to speak freely.
“President Trump has been clear since day one that he wants the war between Russia Ukraine to end, and he has grown frustrated with both sides for their refusal to commit to a peace agreement,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Nevertheless, the President and his team never gives up, and the United States has been working on a detailed and acceptable plan for both sides to stop the killing and create a durable, lasting peace.”
Zelenskyy’s facing U.S. pressure to make concessions to halt the war as he also prepares to meet with lawmakers from his party on Thursday to try to defuse public anger over a corruption scandal. Anti-graft investigators linked his former business partner to a scheme to embezzle as much as $100 million, a probe that has already forced the departure of two government ministers.
Some in his party want Zelenskyy to replace Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak, his right-hand man who plays a direct role in decisions on top-level appointments and critical elements of Ukraine’s wartime strategy, according to a person familiar with the matter. The president will face a parliamentary crisis if he fails to oust Yermak, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive issues.
Yermak, who regularly accompanies Zelenskyy on high-stakes overseas trips, has amassed outsized influence in the administration. Zelenskyy pushed back against criticism last year, describing Yermak as a “powerful manager.”
Ukraine’s two independent anti-corruption agencies released details last week of their 15-month probe into alleged money-laundering in the country’s energy sector. The scheme involved kickbacks from contractors building defenses to protect Ukraine’s nuclear energy facilities from Russian airstrikes, according to investigators.
The agencies are in possession of unreleased recordings of alleged conspirators discussing different corruption schemes and officials in Kyiv are on tenterhooks to see who else might be drawn into the investigation.
The controversy erupted as Ukrainians endure lengthy power outages following intense Russian missile and drone attacks targeting energy infrastructure in the approach to winter.
Zelenskyy in July sought to seize control over the anti-corruption agencies, before backing down in the face of Ukraine’s largest street protests since the war began and condemnation from Kyiv’s international allies.
The president told Bloomberg TV in a Nov. 13 interview that he fully supports the investigation. “The most important thing is sentences for those people who are guilty,” he said. “The president of a country at war cannot have any friends.”
The domestic political challenge is playing out as Ukrainian officials seek clarity on the plan to end the war promoted by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov met with Witkoff earlier this week in Miami and was briefed about the plan, which appeared beneficial to Russia, a person said, asking not to be identified because the matter isn’t public.
Witkoff has been quietly working on the plan for a month, with input from both Ukrainians and the Russians on terms acceptable to end the war and both sides will need to make concessions, a senior U.S. official said.
Ukrainian and European officials don’t yet know what happens if Kyiv rejects the plan, according to people familiar with the matter. Ukraine relies on U.S. intelligence support for air defense and on U.S. weapons that are paid for mostly by the Europeans.
European Union foreign ministers voiced alarm at the proposals as they met for talks in Brussels on Thursday. “For any plan to work, it needs to have Ukrainians and Europeans on board,” the bloc’s foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul spoke on the phone with Witkoff and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan on Thursday to “discuss various ongoing efforts to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” he said in a statement.
“The discussions also touched on concrete ideas that are currently being debated,” Wadephul said. “Both colleagues emphasized the importance of close coordination with Germany and our European partners, which we are fulfilling at all levels.”
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—With assistance from Alberto Nardelli, Mario Parker and Iain Rogers.
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