Trump paints Zelenskyy into a corner with his new plan to end war

With his new 28-point plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, President Donald Trump is resurfacing his argument that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy doesn’t “have the cards” to continue on the battlefield and must come to a settlement that heavily tilts in Moscow’s favor.

Trump, who has demonstrated low regard for Zelenskyy dating back to his first term, says he expects the Ukrainian leader to respond to his administration’s new plan to end the war by Thursday.

The president said over the weekend of Zelenksyy, “He’s going to have to approve it,” though he was more reconciliatory a day later, saying, “I would like to get to peace.”

“We’re trying to get it ended. One way or the other, we have to get it ended,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday.

Hours later, senators critical of Trump’s approach to ending the Russia-Ukraine war said they spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio who told them that the peace plan Trump is pushing Kyiv to accept is actually a “wish list” of the Russians and not the actual proposal offering Washington’s positions.

The State Department called that account “false” and Rubio later took the extraordinary step Saturday night of insisting that the plan was U.S.-authored — but the incident raised still more questions about the plan’s fate.

However, buffeted by a corruption scandal in his government, battlefield setbacks and another difficult winter looming as Russia continues to bombard Ukraine’s energy grid, Zelenskyy says Ukraine is now facing perhaps the most difficult choice in its history.

Trump-Zelenskyy tortured relationship

Zelenskyy has not spoken with Trump since the plan became public this week, but has said he expects to talk to the Republican president in coming days. It’s likely to be another in a series of tough conversations the two leaders have had over the years.

The first time they spoke, in 2019, Trump tried to pressure the then newly minted Ukrainian leader to dig up dirt on Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election. That phone call sparked Trump’s first impeachment.

Trump made Biden’s support for Ukraine a central issue in his successful 2024 campaign, saying the conflict had cost U.S. taxpayers too much money and vowing he would quickly bring the war to an end.

Then early this year in a disastrous Oval Office meeting, Trump and Vice President JD Vance tore into Zelenskyy for what they said was insufficient gratitude for the more than $180 billion the U.S. had appropriated for military aid and other assistance to Kyiv since the start of the war. That episode led to a temporary suspension of U.S. assistance to Ukraine.

And now with the proposal, Trump is pressing Zelenskyy to agree to concessions of land to Moscow, a massive reduction in the size of Ukraine’s army, and agreement from Europe to assert that Ukraine will never be admitted into the NATO military alliance.

“Now Ukraine may find itself facing a very difficult choice: either loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday.

At the center of Trump’s plan is the call on Ukraine to concede the entirety of its eastern Donbas region, even though a vast swath of that land remains in Ukrainian control. Analysts at the independent Institute for the Study of War have estimated it would take several years for the Russian military to completely seize the territory, based on its current rate of advances.

Trump, nevertheless, insists that the loss of the region — which includes cities that are vital defense, industrial and logistics hubs for Ukrainian forces — is a fait accompli.

Trump’s patience remains a question

The Trump proposal was formally presented to Zelenskyy in Kyiv last Thursday by Dan Driscoll, the U.S. Army secretary. The plan itself was a surprise to Driscoll’s staffers, who were not aware as late as Wednesday that their boss would be going to Ukraine as part of a team to present the plan to the Ukrainians.

Army officials walked away from that meeting with the impression that the Ukrainians were viewing the proposal as a starting point that would evolve as negotiations progressed, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. AAMER MADHANI, WASHINGTON, MDT/AP