Ukraine, Russia Tread Lightly as Trump Suggests Thanksgiving Deadline for 28-Point Peace Plan

The Trump administration rolled out a 28-point plan for peace in Ukraine on Thursday, prompting swift, although somewhat equivocal, responses from both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The plan — reportedly drafted by President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in consultation with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev — was first presented to Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umarov in Kyiv, who made some revisions and passed it along to Zelensky. Umarov later denied expressing approval for much of the plan, saying that he merely helped to organize discussions about it.

Zelensky consulted with the leaders of France, the United Kingdom, and Germany before preparing his response and also spoke with Vice President JD Vance on Friday. President Trump said he hoped for a firm answer from Zelensky before Thanksgiving, but was willing to “extend the deadlines” if necessary.

In an interview with Fox News Radio on Friday, Trump said Ukraine is “losing land” and suffering heavy casualties. He praised Ukraine’s defenders as “very brave,” but predicted Ukraine would “lose in a short period of time” if they did not accept the peace plan.

The plan, as reported in American mainstream media widely, broadly calls for Ukraine to surrender the eastern territory of the Donbass occupied by Russia after the 2022 invasion, an area in which the Ukrainian military clashed with pro-Russian separatists for years before Russia attacked. Ukraine would also give up its claims on Crimea, the peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Ukraine would also reportedly agree to limiting the size of its military to 600,000 troops and would agree never to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The Russians have offered several justifications for invading Ukraine, but two of the reasons most commonly cited were protecting ethnic Russians living in eastern Ukraine, preventing NATO from absorbing Ukraine, and strengthening Russia’s presence along the border. Ukraine has long hoped to join NATO and the idea is very popular with the Ukrainian public.

Another concession in the plan concerns the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, which Russia has occupied since early in the invasion. The plan called on Russia to relinquish control, but for Ukraine to give half of the power generated by the plant to Russia.

In return for these concessions, Ukraine would reportedly receive a guarantee of respect for its sovereignty, Russia would agree not to invade Ukraine (or any of its neighbors), and Ukraine would receive an enhanced “security guarantee” that would be very close in character to NATO’s pledge of mutual defense. Ukraine would receive extensive international assistance with postwar reconstruction, including $100 billion taken from frozen Russian assets.

Some details of the 28-point plan proved immediately controversial with Ukrainian officials, including the concession of some eastern land Russia does not control at the moment, the cap on the size of Ukraine’s military — which would reduce its size by about 25 percent — and a ban on “Nazi ideology.”

There were also some complaints about the generous incentives for Russia included in the plan, such as immediate readmission to the Group of Seven (G7) nations, which Moscow was expelled from after annexing Crimea in 2014. Furthermore, Ukrainians are reluctant to trust Russian promises of non-aggression, noting that Russia has a long history of finding excuses to nullify such pledges.

Zelensky gave a video address to the Ukrainian people on Friday in which he sounded pessimistic about the 28-point plan, describing it as an unfair, possibly humiliating arrangement that he might be forced to accept by a combination of pressure from the United States and the looming threat of an “extremely harsh winter” if the war continues.

“Now is one of the most difficult moments in our history,” Zelensky intoned. “Ukraine may find itself facing a very difficult choice: either the loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner. Either the difficult 28 points, or an extremely difficult winter — the hardest one — and further risks.”

Zelensky’s address suggested Ukrainians should come together and demonstrate their united strength, possibly to get a better peace offer by demonstrating their willingness to fight.

“Our people, citizens, politicians, everyone, we need to get together. Come to our senses. Stop the bullshit. Stop the political games,” he said, seemingly alluding to the massive corruption scandal that has embroiled his government.

“The state must work,” Zelensky said. “The parliament of a warring country must be united. And all of us together must not forget and not confuse who exactly is the enemy of Ukraine today.”

“We will absolutely not give the enemy any reason to say that Ukraine does not want peace, that Ukraine is disrupting the process or that Ukraine is not ready for diplomacy. That will not happen,” he added, perhaps signaling that he would not reject the proposal out of hand.

The leaders of France, Germany, and the U.K. restated their “continued and full support” in their call with Zelensky on Friday and were evidently not pleased with their exclusion from the drafting process.

While they did not explicitly reject the 28-point plan, the European leaders took issue with some of its points, including the cap on Ukrainian military strength. They insisted that “any agreement affecting European states, the European Union, or NATO requires the consent of European partners or a consensus among allies.”

A joint statement released by the German government on Friday also included praise for the “United States’ efforts to end the war in Ukraine,” particularly “the commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and the willingness to provide Ukraine with robust security guarantees.”

The Russians sent mixed signals on Thursday and Friday. The Kremlin initially refused to comment on the details. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Zelensky’s “room for maneuver regarding decision-making is shrinking as territories are lost” to Russia, so continuing the war would be “senseless and dangerous for them.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin later claimed the U.S. plan was based on discussions he had with President Trump in Alaska in August. He said the full text of the plan has been transmitted to Moscow, but his government has not yet discussed the proposal “in detail.”

“I believe it could also form the basis of a final peace settlement,” Putin said.

Putin held a meeting with his security cabinet on Friday in which he said Russia is prepared to “show the flexibility asked from us” to work on a peace plan, but also chided Ukraine and its European allies for harboring “an illusion that Russia can be strategically defeated.”

Putin expressed confidence at the meeting that Russia was capable of “achieving the goals of the special military operation by military means.”