Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is facing increasing pressure from the United States, which is demanding that the head of state agree to significant territorial losses and other concessions as part of US President Donald Trump's peace plan. This was reported by Axios, citing two Ukrainian officials, informs UNN.
Details
The publication indicates that after weeks of intense diplomacy, Ukrainians still believe that aspects of the current US plan favor Moscow, and that the US is pressuring Zelenskyy much more than Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. At the same time, an unnamed American official denied this, emphasizing that the US also pressured Putin to soften his demands.
According to journalists, the negotiations focused on two issues: Russia's demand that Ukraine cede all of Donbas, including parts not controlled by its troops, and Ukraine's request for reliable security guarantees from the US to prevent future Russian aggression.
At the same time, according to a Ukrainian interlocutor of the media, the US proposal worsened, from Kyiv's point of view, after Trump's advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a five-hour meeting with Putin in the Kremlin last week, with Witkoff and Kushner "wanting a clear agreement from Zelenskyy when discussing the plan with him during a two-hour conversation on Saturday."
It seemed that the US was trying in various ways to convince us of Russia's desire to seize all of Donbas, and the Americans wanted Zelenskyy to agree to all of this during the phone call
At the same time, an American official said this was confusing, as the US had submitted an updated proposal a day earlier.
The current draft was largely influenced by the Ukrainians' proposals, with Kushner and Witkoff pressuring Putin to agree to some Ukrainian demands
The publication summarizes that this whole story reflects "the simmering distrust between the Zelenskyy and Trump administrations, despite the many hours their teams have spent negotiating."
Recall
The head of Ukraine's delegation to the peace talks, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, reported on "constructive work" during a multi-day visit to the US with American negotiators.