Zelenskyy Faces “Dignity or Key Partner” Choice as Trump Sets Deadline

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Friday that his country may have to choose between “loss of dignity” and “the risk of losing a key partner” as President Trump pressed Kyiv to accept a 28-point U.S. peace plan by Thanksgiving, CBS News and NBC News reported.

“Either a difficult 28 points, or an extremely difficult winter,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in a video, according to both outlets. Mr. Trump said on a Fox News radio show that he wants an answer by Thursday, calling it “an appropriate time,” but allowed that deadlines can be extended “if things are working well,” CBS News reported. NBC News said three U.S. officials described it as a goal more than a firm deadline, and that Mr. Trump said he has no plans to lift sanctions on Russia while awaiting a response. Mr. Trump said Ukraine “should just keep fighting, I guess” if it does not like the plan, according to CBS News and NBC News.

The draft, first reported by Axios and confirmed to NBC News by a person familiar with it and to CBS News by a White House official, would require Ukraine to give up the remainder of its eastern Donbas region, cap its military and renounce NATO membership, the outlets reported. CBS News said the cap would be 600,000 troops. It calls for Crimea to be recognized as de facto Russian, including by the United States, according to NBC News. The part of Donetsk still held by Ukraine would be ceded to Russia but treated as a neutral buffer zone with no Russian military presence, and the front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia would be frozen, CBS News said. The plan also offers Ukraine security guarantees, NBC News reported.

The White House says the plan is fair. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was crafted “to find the best win-win scenario, where both parties gain more than they must give,” CBS News reported. CBS News said that Steve Witkoff, the president’s envoy, met Kirill Dmitriev, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Miami on Oct. 24 to develop it. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll presented it to Mr. Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday, and a White House official called the talks “productive.”

European officials told CBS News their governments knew the U.S. was working on a proposal but had not helped write it.

Mr. Putin said the plan could form the basis for a settlement but that it was not being discussed with Moscow in any substantive way, CBS News reported. He added that if Ukraine rejects it, Russia would pursue its goals “through military means,” NBC News said.

Mr. Zelenskyy said he had spoken with the leaders of France, the U.K. and Germany, and, per a Ukrainian official, with Vice President JD Vance, CBS News reported. A senior administration official told NBC News that it was “strongly implied to the Ukrainians that the United States expects them to agree.”