Trump ramps up pressure on Zelenskyy to accept peace agreement

LONDON — President Donald Trump ratcheted up pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept a peace deal that critics fear will favor Moscow, accusing the Ukrainian president of prolonging the war that’s now in its fourth year.

Trump’s latest broadside against Zelenskyy, made on Truth Social, comes even as Ukraine and its European allies have sought to slow Trump’s rush to a deal over worries that it will sacrifice Ukrainian and European security. They insist that a ceasefire and clarity over security guarantees for Ukraine must precede any deal that involves negotiations over territory, according to people familiar with the matter.

In his post, Trump tore into the Ukrainian leader for saying this week that his country wouldn’t recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea and doing so would go against the constitution. Trump said a proposed deal wouldn’t ask Ukraine to do so.

“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump wrote. “The statement made by Zelenskyy today will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field,’ and nobody wants that! We are very close to a Deal but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE.”

The remark was only the latest sign of Trump’s ire toward Zelenskyy, with whom he clashed in the Oval Office in February and has repeatedly pressured to accept a deal. That’s put Ukraine in the awkward position of seeking to keep the U.S. on its side while also looking to sand down some of Trump’s demands.

Trump warned last week that he would walk away from efforts to end the war if a deal can’t be reached soon. At a meeting in Paris last week, U.S. officials presented Europe and Ukraine with a new proposal to end the war that would effectively freeze the conflict largely along existing battle lines, Bloomberg previously reported. The U.S. is also willing to acknowledge Russia’s occupation of Crimea, which is internationally recognized as Ukrainian territory, and to ease sanctions on Moscow as part of any potential deal.

Zelenskyy’s response

Zelenskyy responded in a social media post that “emotions have run high today. But it is good that 5 countries met to bring peace closer,” referring to talks in London on Wednesday among officials from the U.S., Ukraine and major European powers. Zelenskyy pointedly attached without comment a U.S. statement from Trump’s first term as president proclaiming that “the United States rejects Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine’s territorial integrity is restored.”

Trump’s comments came after Vice President JD Vance said earlier Wednesday in India that any potential deal will have to include “some territorial swaps” and the border may not wind up reflecting the front lines as they stand now. He said the U.S. has issued a “very explicit proposal” to Russia and Ukraine and warned it could walk away from the deal if they don’t agree.

That’s generated some pushback from European officials as well as Ukrainians. Ahead of the meeting in London, allies sought further detail from Washington on the sequencing of its proposal to stop the fighting in Ukraine and to bring an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion, currently into its fourth year.

Although they are keen to support U.S. efforts to halt the war, Ukraine and European states want assurances that Russia is willing to agree to a ceasefire that would provide space to negotiate a final peace agreement, according to people familiar with the matter.

They also want to be sure Moscow is willing to accept an agreement that would include security guarantees from Ukraine’s Western partners, which would allow Kyiv to retain an adequately manned and equipped army, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It’s the latest attempt to influence the talks that had left Europe under pressure as Washington pushes for a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin and tries to exert tough conditions on Kyiv.

Europeans have grown alarmed that in the rush to halt the fighting the odds may increasingly be stacked against Kyiv. While Ukraine has said it is ready to agree to an unconditional ceasefire, Russia’s preference is for negotiations to focus on the final terms and conditions of an agreement. Moscow has also driven a hard bargain in any truce talks and had been accused by Kyiv of breaking a partial, 30-day ceasefire that recently lapsed.

Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said in a Telegram post after the talks in London ended that Kyiv remained committed to Trump’s peace efforts and regular consultations will continue. A “full and unconditional ceasefire” would be a first step toward a “full-fledged settlement process and achieving a just and sustainable peace,” he had said in a post ahead of the meetings on Wednesday.

In a worrying development for Kyiv, the talks in London were downgraded to technical-level meetings after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio postponed his visit. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who was also expected to participate, will instead travel to Moscow to meet with Putin on Friday, according to a person familiar with the plans, their fourth meeting in Trump’s current term.

Territorial swaps

Still, the U.S. needs Europeans on board to lift sanctions on Russia as changing the bloc’s restrictions requires the backing of all member states.

Freezing the conflict would be a far greater sacrifice for Ukraine, which has sought to regain all territory in the country’s east and south seized by Russia since 2014, including Crimea, and following the full-scale invasion that began in February 2022.

Russia welcomes the U.S. “mediation efforts,” though many details of a settlement still need to be discussed and work is continuing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, according to the state-run Tass news service. While there are no contacts now with Ukraine or Europe, Putin is open to them in the interests of reaching a settlement, Peskov said.

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(With assistance from Akayla Gardner and Kate Sullivan.)

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