Donald Trump has said he is “disappointed” after claiming that Volodymyr Zelensky has not read his peace plan for Ukraine in his latest attack on the Ukrainian leader.
Speaking to reporters at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC on Sunday, the US president claimed that both Moscow and “Zelensky’s people” support the agreement but that the Ukrainian president was preventing talks from moving forward.
“We’ve been speaking to President Putin, and we’ve been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including President Zelensky. And I have to say I’m a little disappointed Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal. That was as of a few hours ago,” he said.
“Russia’s fine with it. You know, Russia would rather have the whole country.”
Mr Zelensky will meet with Sir Keir Starmer, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz in London on Monday to discuss the US-drafted plan.
Their visit comes days after Mr Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner held five hours of negotiations with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The Russian president described the talks as “very useful” but stressed that differences remained.
The original 28-point peace plan, drafted by the US and briefed to the media last month, sparked consternation in Europe as it appeared to cede to Moscow’s maximalist demands.
A flurry of diplomatic activity between the US, Russia and Ukraine in the past fortnight has so far proved unsuccessful, with both sides no closer to agreeing to a peace deal. Moscow has insisted that Ukraine must give up occupied territory as part of an agreement and significantly reduce the size of its army. Kyiv says both demands are unacceptable.
Despite the lack of a breakthrough on key issues, Mr Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg insisted that a peace agreement was “really close” on Sunday but that two obstacles remained: the fate of the Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
European leaders fear the deadlock could see Washington eventually walk away from peace talks and withdraw support for Kyiv.
Last week, Mr Macron told European allies that Mr Trump may “betray” Ukraine during peace negotiations in a transcript of a conference call leaked to Der Spiegel. The French president said that the Trump administration could attempt to force Ukraine to give up territory “without clarity on security guarantees”.
His comments underline a growing rift between Europe and Washington over how to end the nearly four-year-old conflict.
Concerns were heightened further last week following the release of an explosive US National Security Strategy document that claimed that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” due to mass migration, a narrative that aligns with the European far-right. The document did not name Russia as a threat to the US.
On Sunday, Mr Trump’s eldest son told Sky News that the president may walk away from the peace process altogether as the issue was less important to Americans than his father’s “war” on drug cartels.
