Zelensky warns Ukraine faces ‘difficult choice’ as US pushes Kyiv to accept peace plan

Ukraine faces “a difficult choice” in the coming days, whether to accept the latest US peace plan or face “a very tough winter”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in a video address to the nation on Friday, amid reports that the US is putting pressure on Kyiv to accept the deal.

Stressing that Ukraine was facing “one of the most difficult moments” in its history, Zelensky said the country may have to choose between “losing its dignity or the risk of losing a key partner”.

“Either 28 difficult points or an extremely difficult winter — the most difficult one yet — and further risks,” Zelensky said, referring to the 28-point peace plan devised by Russia and the US earlier this week. “Life without freedom, without dignity, without justice. And we are expected to trust those who have attacked us twice already,” he continued.

Zelensky added that the next week would be “very difficult and eventful” and vowed to fight for the dignity and freedom of all Ukrainians, calling on the nation to pull together and to stop in-fighting and the playing of political games.

Zelensky’s address comes amid reports of Washington threatening to withhold intelligence sharing and end weapon deliveries to Kyiv unless he agrees to accept the peace plan devised without Ukraine’s involvement, Reuters reported on Friday.

The US has given Kyiv until the end of the month to sign off on the deal, the report said. One source familiar with the process told Reuters that Trump would like Ukraine to sign a framework agreement with Russia by next Thursday, in time for Thanksgiving in the US.

One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Kyiv was under greater pressure from Washington than at any time during any previous peace discussions. “They want to stop the war and want Ukraine to pay the price,” Reuters quoted the source as saying.

In his nightly address to Ukrainians on Thursday, Zelensky said a US military delegation, headed by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, had presented the plan in a “very serious conversation” in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday and that he would meet with US President Donald Trump in the coming days to discuss it further.

Under the plan, Ukraine would cede the whole of Crimea and Donbas to Russia, while the present line of contact in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions would be frozen, essentially granting Moscow de facto control of large areas of both. The Ukrainian military would be reduced to from almost 900,000 to just 600,000 personnel, and Kyiv would amend its constitution to formally renounce its goal of joining NATO.

In return, Ukraine would be provided with “reliable security guarantees” by the US, and European fighter jets to defend the country from future invasion would be stationed in neighbouring Poland. Meanwhile, sanctions would be lifted on Russia and it would be invited to rejoin the G8, while $100 billion in frozen Russian assets would be “invested in US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine”, with the US to receive 50% of profits from the ventures.