Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to start negotiations now or lose more territory. He made this statement after the United States presented Ukraine with a draft peace plan, which, according to the AFP agency, meets many of Russia’s demands, TASR reports.
- The US presented Ukraine with a peace plan with concessions to Russia.
- Russia wants successful negotiations, but refuses to publicly discuss the plan.
- Ukraine rejects any agreements infringing its national interests.
- The plan includes the withdrawal of Donbass and the curtailment of the Ukrainian military.
“Zelensky should be convinced by the effective work of the Russian armed forces: it is better to negotiate and do it now than later,” Peskov declared. “The space for freedom of decision-making is shrinking, as it is losing territories during the offensive actions of the Russian army,” he stated.
According to the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, Russia has not yet received the 28-point draft peace plan supported by US President Donald Trump. Sky News reports. Peskov added that Russia wants the peace talks to be successful and therefore will not discuss the points publicly.
Zelensky’s office announced on Thursday that it had received the draft of the American plan. According to Sky News sources, Zelenskyy will discuss this proposal by phone with Trump next week. On Friday, according to AFP, he spoke by phone with the representatives of Britain, France and Germany.
Meanwhile, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and chief Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umarov declared that Kyiv will not accept any deal that “crosses its red lines”.
The American proposal supported by US President Donald Trump and published by the agencies assumes that Ukraine cedes all of Donbas to Russia and pledges that the Ukrainian army will have a maximum of 600,000 members.
According to the plan, it would The Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula and the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk were recognized as de facto Russian territory. Ukraine would also have to give up its ambition to join NATO and remain a country without nuclear weapons by constitutional decree. However, it could apply for EU membership. European fighter jets would be deployed in Poland to protect Ukraine, but no NATO troops should be stationed on Ukrainian territory itself.
