Donald Trump has given his approval for a controversial new peace plan to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, according to reports.
The new 28-point plan would consist of “security guarantees, security in Europe, and future US relations with Russia and Ukraine”, Axios reported, citing sources.
But it has caused outrage as it would require Kyiv to give up more land to Russia and partially disarm, conditions long seen by Ukraine and its allies as tantamount to capitulation.
Mr Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is said to have discussed the plan with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Volodymyr Zelensky’s security adviser Rustem Umerov, according to officials from Washington and Kyiv.
According to reports, a meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky at the White House last month descended into a shouting match as the US president demanded that his Ukrainian counterpart accept Russia’s maximalist demands for ending the war.
Mr Trump was reported to be shouting and swearing as he threw aside Ukrainian maps of the battlefield. The president denied such an exchange took place.
But in the aftermath of the meeting, Mr Trump called for a ceasefire along the current front line – a key demand from Kyiv and Europe – and told reporters the meeting was “cordial”.
Details of the new plan were briefed to various media outlets on Wednesday night. They include a demand that Ukraine must surrender the Donetsk region as a precondition for peace, according to the Financial Times.
The deal would require Kyiv to cede control of the eastern Donbas region while legally retaining ownership of it. In exchange, Russia would pay an undisclosed rental fee for de facto control of the region, officials familiar with the deal told the Telegraph.
Two sources, who asked not to be identified, also said the proposals involved significantly cutting the size of Ukraine’s armed forces in half. The military would also reportedly be banned from possessing long-range missiles.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio did not deny any of the demands briefed to the media on Wednesday night. In a post on X, he said that Washington “will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”
“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas. And achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions,” Mr Rubio said.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that any peace plan for Ukraine would have to eliminate the “root causes” of the conflict, in a repetition of its previous position. They added that, while contacts were ongoing with the US, no formal negotiations on the plan were taking place.
Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on whether the Russian leader had been briefed on the details of the reported Ukraine peace plan.
