Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is under pressure on the decision deadline for the 28-point peace plan given to Ukraine by US officials this week.
"We have a way to get peace, or we think we have a way to get peace. And he will have to accept that," Trump said of Zelensky on November 21 at the Trump Department.
According to the draft peace plan released by the US, the conflict borders in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will be frozen and Russia will keep almost the entire area under control.
The Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, will remain under Moscow's control. The same is true of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian military controls most, but not the entire Donetsk region. This means Russia will seize some territory that is not currently under the control of its military forces.
Russia is also sharing power sources produced by Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will also be welcomed back to the elite economic club for advanced economies, along with the US and its most powerful allies.
To punish Russia when the conflict in Ukraine broke out, Russia would lose the financial assets that the US had previously frozen. According to President Donald Trump's plan, the $100 billion in assets, mainly held in Europe, will be used for reconstruction and investment in Ukraine, with the US receiving a 50% profit from the project. Europe will also spend $100 billion to support Ukraine's reconstruction.
"The remainder of frozen Russian assets will be invested in a separate US-Russia investment fund to implement joint projects in a number of specific sectors. The fund aims to strengthen relations and expand common interests, creating strong motivation to prevent a recurrence of conflict," the US proposal stated.
Sanctions will be lifted on a case-by-case basis and Russia will cooperate with the US on artificial intelligence and projects exploiting rare earths in the Arctic.
According to the US plan, Ukraine is also expected to make significant grants. In addition to ceding territory to Russia, Ukraine will abandon its efforts to join NATO and agree to limit its troops to 600,000. As of January 2025, Ukraine is estimated to have 880,000 military personnel in active service.
Ukraine will be allowed to join the European Union, and return children who have been taken away from Ukraine. Kiev will also have to hold elections within 100 days after the holding of the election was suspended under martial law during the war.
President Zelensky was elected to a five-year term in 2019, which would have ended in 2024 if there were no conflicts.
President Donald Trump said on November 21 that he had given Ukraine a flexible deadline of November 27 to assess the proposal.
In his speech on November 21, President Zelensky said that the pressure on Ukraine to accept an agreement was increasing.
Ukraine may now face an extremely difficult choice. Either losing prestige, or facing the risk of losing a key partner. Either accept the 28 points of difficulties, or a very harsh winter," Zelensky said.
On November 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that President Trump's proposal "could create a basis for a final peaceful solution" but the proposal has not been discussed in detail with Russia.
