U.S. President Donald Trump has unleashed essentially the most extensive diplomatic effort to finish the fighting in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly 4 years ago, but Washington’s efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Monday with European allies in London as he faces U.S. pressure to simply accept a plan to finish the war at a time when Russian forces are making slow but regular gains.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner visited Moscow last week for five-hour talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Witkoff and Kushner then held several meetings with senior Ukrainian officials in Florida in an try and iron out the differences over a plan that has been criticized for heavily favoring Moscow.
It’s not clear where the proposal stands after those negotiations. But, in public, Russian and Ukrainian leaders have laid out a few of their demands.
Putin wants all of the areas in 4 key regions that his forces have seized and Crimea, which was illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian. He has also demanded that Ukraine withdraw from some areas within the east which have not been captured.
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Moscow has also insisted that Ukraine abandon its bid to affix NATO, limit the scale of its army, grant official status to the Russian language, and recognize the Russian Orthodox Church.
Russia has refused to halt the fighting until a comprehensive peace deal is reached.
Kyiv has said it’s able to halt the fighting along the prevailing front line — though it might not officially cede territory currently under Russian control. It has also rejected Moscow’s demands that it give up other land Russia has not been capable of take by force and drop its bid for NATO membership.
As a part of a prospective peace agreement, Ukraine has demanded solid security guarantees each from Europe and the U.S. to discourage Russia from attacking again.
Zelenskyy and his European allies have repeatedly accused Putin of slow-walking the talks to permit his forces more time to press ahead with the invasion.
Trump shows increasing impatience with Zelenskyy
Trump on Sunday appeared to voice exasperation with Zelenskyy, as he has before.
“Russia is, I imagine, advantageous with it, but I’m undecided that Zelenskyy’s advantageous with it,” Trump said. “His people adore it, but he hasn’t read it.”
It’s not clear why Trump thought Zelenskyy hadn’t read the plan or who he was saying loved it. Ukrainian officials have made sparing comments about it and only a few details of the negotiations have been made public.
Putin also hasn’t fully backed the White House plan. While the Russian leader last week hailed Trump’s peace efforts, he also noted that some parts of the plan were unacceptable for Moscow and needed more work.
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