Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the US has offered to create a “free economic zone” in the contested Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in a bid to push a peace deal over the line.
The Donbas – an industrial and coal-mining area primarily made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – has become one of the key sticking points in the US-proposed peace plan.
The first draft of the plan, widely leaked last month, stipulated that Ukraine must withdraw from areas of the Donbas it currently controls, thought to be a minority portion, as a condition for peace.
Ukraine considered that point “unacceptable”, and Mr Zelenskyy has spent the last few weeks drafting a response to the plan that removed “obvious anti-Ukraine points”.
After a series of meetings with Ukraine’s European allies, including a trip to London to meet Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, Zelenskyy said on Thursday that he’d sent Washington a revised peace plan, whittled down to just 20 points.
The new US proposal envisions Ukraine withdrawing from its territory in the Donbas without the Russians advancing, creating a neutral zone.
But Zelenskyy poured cold water on the plans as he briefed journalists in Kyiv.
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“Who will govern this territory, which they are calling a ‘free economic zone’ or a ‘demilitarised zone’ – they don’t know,” he said.
“If one side’s troops have to retreat and the other side stays where they are, then what will hold back these other troops, the Russians? Or what will stop them disguising themselves as civilians and taking over this free economic zone? This is all very serious.
“It’s not a fact that Ukraine would agree to it, but if you are talking about a compromise then it has to be a fair compromise.”
Sky News military analyst Michael Clarke gave an ominous assessment of the proposal, saying it left “no physical solution” to resolve the problem of future attacks.
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He said: “If Ukraine gives up the fortress cities in the Donbas, the only security they can have is by being heavily armed and being backed by their allies in some way.”
“The only thing that would stop Russia is deterrence: the knowledge that either the European forces were sitting in Ukraine ready to fight for them, which is hard to imagine at the moment, and even harder to imagine that they are backed up by American forces.”
Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Service Institute, was similarly sceptical.
“The general view is that the Russians will be too tempted to… try and come back for more,” he told Sky News.
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He added that “some kind of temporary ceasefire” might work, but it would require “the Europeans to demonstrate they can put their forces where their mouth is in terms of a reassurance force”.
Amid this backdrop there was a meeting today of the coalition of the willing – the 34-strong bloc of nations pledged to support Ukraine against Russian aggression, of which Britain is a part.
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There was agreement to continue to fund military support, “progress on mobilising frozen Russian sovereign assets”, and an update from Zelenskyy on Russia’s continued bombardment of his country, according to Downing Street.
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said the bloc was working to ensure any peace deal contains “serious components of European deterrence”.
He added: “It is important that the United States is with us and supports these efforts. No one is interested in a third Russian invasion.”
He also addressed growing pressure from the US for an election in Ukraine, saying “there must be a ceasefire” before the country can go to the polls.
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Zelenskyy’s term expired last year, but wartime elections are forbidden by law in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the tone tonight from the White House was one of impatience, with Trump’s team saying he wouldn’t attend further meetings until there’s a real chance of signing a peace deal.
“The president is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war, and he is sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
