US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would have to like the US plan to end the war in Ukraine, which assumes that Kiev will cede part of its territory to Russia. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
“He’s going to have to like it, and if he doesn’t like it, then they should just keep fighting,” Trump told reporters when asked about the Ukrainian president’s less-than-enthusiastic response to his peace plan. “At some point, he’s going to have to accept something,” Trump added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi declared on Friday that he will not betray Ukrainian national interests and will propose alternatives to the peace plan. According to him, the next week will be very difficult for Kyiv, because Ukraine faces the decision of whether to lose its dignity or risk losing the United States as its key partner with the American peace plan.
The deadline may be extended
In an interview with Fox News Radio on Friday, the American president said that he expects Zelensky to respond to his peace plan by Thursday (November 27). According to him, however, it is possible to extend the deadline for finalizing the conditions. “I’ve had a lot of deadlines, but if things work well, you tend to extend the deadlines,” he said. “But Thursday is the day — we think it’s a good time,” the White House chief said.
The draft 28-point peace plan envisages Ukraine ceding all of Donbas to Russia and pledging to keep its army to a maximum of 600,000 and never join NATO, while Russia will be readmitted to the G8 and sanctions imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine will be eased.
Trump declared that if the fighting continues, the Ukrainians will still lose territories that would have to be ceded to Russia under his peace plan. “Say what you want, they were very brave,” he said of the Ukrainian troops fighting the Russians. Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not looking for another war,” the Republican leader said when asked about the possibility that Russia would attack other countries in Europe after invading Ukraine.
