Trump has stepped up pressure on Kyiv to reach an agreement since unveiling a peace proposal last month that critics say mirrors key Kremlin demands, including Ukraine surrendering strategically important territory.
The 28-point proposal has triggered a flurry of diplomacy between Washington and Ukraine’s European allies. Ukrainian officials have said they recently submitted an updated version of the plan to the United States.
A White House official confirmed to AFP on Friday a Wall Street Journal report that Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, will hold talks with Zelensky and European leaders over the weekend to discuss the state of peace negotiations.
Germany said Berlin will host the leaders including the heads of the European Union and NATO on Monday, shortly after Zelensky attends a German-Ukrainian business forum with Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The latest US-led proposal includes the prospect of Ukraine’s rapid accession to the European Union, a move strongly opposed by Moscow. According to a senior official familiar with the matter, Ukraine could join the bloc as early as January 2027.
European leaders and Kyiv are also pressing Washington to provide “security guarantees” before Ukraine agrees to any territorial concessions, the French presidency said Friday.
Concrete security guarantees are a “prerequisite” for any peace agreement and must be enshrined in a legally binding document, Ukraine’s ambassador to NATO, Alyona Getmanchuk, told AFP on Thursday.
EU membership
EU accession typically takes many years and requires unanimous approval from all 27 member states. Several countries most notably Hungary have consistently opposed Ukraine’s membership.
Trump could use “various levers of influence” to persuade reluctant leaders, Zelensky told journalists, including AFP, on Thursday.
Ukraine has long sought EU membership but continues to struggle with entrenched corruption, a key hurdle in the accession process. Full details of the latest proposal have not been made public.
Berlin said Zelensky will discuss “the status of peace negotiations” with “numerous European heads of state and government, as well as the leaders of the EU and NATO”.
Moscow wary
Russia on Friday signalled scepticism about efforts to revise the US plan, which Moscow has previously indicated it could support.
“We have the impression that this version will be worsened,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told the Kommersant business daily.
“It will be a long process,” he added, saying Moscow had not seen an updated proposal since talks between President Vladimir Putin and US envoys Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow last week.
Zelensky said Thursday that Washington was calling on Ukraine, but not Russia to withdraw troops from parts of the eastern Donetsk region, where a demilitarised “free economic zone” would serve as a buffer between the two armies.
However, an adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday evening that Kyiv was “not considering” any agreement involving territorial concessions or a demilitarised zone.
Russia, which enjoys a numerical advantage in both manpower and weaponry, has continued to advance on the battlefield, registering its fastest gains in nearly a year in November.
AFP
