President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine faces "one of the most difficult moments" in its history as the United States presses Kyiv to agree to a controversial plan to end the war launched by Russia, warning the country risks "losing a key partner" but will not "betray" its own interests.
In a videotaped address to the nation on November 21, Zelenskyy said his government "will work calmly with America and all partners" and vowed to hold a "constructive search for solutions" with Washington, which handed him the 28-point draft plan a day earlier.
"I will present arguments, I will persuade, I will offer alternatives, but we will definitely not give the enemy a reason to say that Ukraine does not want peace," Zelenskyy said, suggesting Kyiv would seek substantial changes to the US proposal, which entails major concessions by Kyiv, after it emerged abruptly this week.
"Now Ukraine may find itself facing a very difficult choice. Either loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner [the US]," he said, dressed in black and urging unity in a somber-toned address that comes at a tough time, with a corruption scandal shaking his administration.
"Either a difficult 28 points or an extremely hard winter -- the hardest -- and further risks. Life without freedom, without dignity, without justice," he said.
Speaking the same day to Fox News, US President Donald Trump said he believed Thanksgiving, which is November 27, is an "appropriate" deadline for the Ukrainian leadership to make a decision on the plan.
What's In The Plan?
The draft proposal obtained by RFE/RL and other news outlets indicates that if it were approved in its current wording, Ukraine would be required to cede more than 20 percent of its territory, at least de facto, and make other major concessions including limiting the size of its military and a constitutional prohibition on joining NATO.
It would also slap restrictions on NATO, obliging the alliance not to expand further or to station troops in Ukraine, and would end Russia's isolation from the West, paving the way for the removal of sanctions and extending Moscow an invitation to rejoin the club known as the G-7 since it was excluded in 2014 over its seizure of Crimea.
Neither the United States nor Ukraine has confirmed the wording of the 28-point draft proposal, and Russia has made few comments on the matter. The reported draft and officials' remarks about the proposal have raised many questions.
As the latest push in Trump's effort to end the biggest and deadliest war in Europe since 1945 takes shape, here are some of the key questions -- and potential answers.
How Flexible Is Washington On The Plan?
Initial reports suggested the plan had been worked out by the United States and Russia without input from Ukraine, generating concerns it is being foisted on Ukraine as something close to a fait accompli.
Prior to Trump's interview with Fox News, the Financial Times cited unnamed Ukrainian officials as saying the Trump administration had told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others on his team that the White House was working on an "aggressive" timeline in order to end the war before the new year.
Reuters' sources said Kyiv was under greater pressure from Washington than during any previous peace discussions, with the United States threatening to curtail intelligence sharing and weapons supplies.
"It's a good plan for both" Russia and Ukraine, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on November 20, adding, "We believe that it should be acceptable to both sides. And we're working very hard to get it done."
At the same time, Leavitt said White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been working on the proposal for about a month and had been talking to both Russia and Ukraine "to understand what these countries would commit to in order to see a lasting and durable peace."
Rubio seemed to suggest the draft deal was not set in stone, writing on X that "we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict."
Has Ukraine Already Rejected It?
The short answer is no. After a meeting with top Pentagon officers and the chief of the US Army in Kyiv on November 20, Zelenskyy said he had received the US draft and intends to discuss it with Trump -- a conversation media reports say could take place next week. He spoke to Vice President JD Vance on November 21.
"We are working on the document prepared by the American side. This must be a plan that ensures a real and dignified peace," Zelenskyy said in a post on X on November 21. In the address later in the day, he also steered clear of rejecting the plan.
At a UN Security Council on November 20, Ukraine's deputy UN envoy, Khrystyna Hayovyshyn, said Kyiv's "core principles are non-negotiable," according to a summary in a post on X: "No recognition of temporarily occupied territories as 'Russian," "Full respect for Ukraine's sovereignty & self-defense," and "Freedom to choose alliances."
The reported draft appears to cross all three of those red lines, with its numerical limit on army size, its barring of NATO membership, and its call for recognition of Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as "de facto Russian."
The "de facto" stipulation may be an attempt to open a loophole by enabling Ukraine to avoid formal recognition, but Hayovyshyn suggested that wouldn't fly.
"There will never be any recognition, formal or otherwise, of Ukrainian territory temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation as Russian," she told the UN Security Council.
Regardless of how that part is parsed, Ukraine seems highly unlikely to accept wording calling for the withdrawal of its forces from the part of the Donetsk region they still hold and are defending in fierce fighting every day, let alone the international recognition of that land as Russian.
While Zelenskyy has voiced readiness for Ukraine to conduct elections once the war is over and martial law is lifted, Kyiv -- which has bristled at Russian President Vladimir Putin's inaccurate claims that Zelenskyy is no longer the legitimate president -- might balk at the stipulation that it hold elections in 100 days after the agreement is signed.
A clause calling for the "full amnesty" of all parties in the war would also be hard for many Ukrainians to swallow, given widespread evidence of atrocities by Russian forces -- which Moscow in general has denied -- and frequent attacks that have killed and maimed Ukrainian civilians, among other conduct by the Russian government and military.
Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court on suspicion of war crimes over the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.
What About Security Guarantees?
One of Ukraine's key demands for agreeing to any peace deal has been robust security guarantees.
The reported draft plan states Ukraine will receive reliable security guarantees and a new Russian invasion of Ukraine would lead to a "decisive coordinated military response," the reinstatement of sanctions, and the revocation of recognition of "the new territory."
But it is skimpy on details, and the bar on NATO troops being stationed in Ukraine appears to rule out a potential plan by the largely European "Coalition of the Willing" to send forces to back up Ukrainian troops.
"There are a lot of vague and undisclosed points that needclarification, because a lot actually depends on those clarifications," Ukrainian political analyst Petro Oleshchuk told Current Time.
"What I've seen, even if we assume it's accurate, is more like a draft written on a napkin during negotiations rather than a document that could actually be signed by someone."
Zelenskyy has indicated that in addition to Ukraine, Europe must not be sidelined in the peace process. After a call with the leaders of France, Britain, and Germany on November 21, he said on X the countries "are coordinating closely to make sure that the principled stances are taken into account."
What Does Russia Think?
Reports of the US draft proposal, particularly when they first emerged, sparked concerns that it echoed longstanding Russian demands such as the prohibition of NATO membership for Ukraine and the recognition of Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk as Russian and that it amounted to capitulation by Kyiv.
Nonetheless, Russia may find fault with specific aspects of the plan, such as a cap on Ukraine's army size that, at 600,000, is far higher than what Moscow has demanded in the past, as well as with its wording, which analyst Tatyana Stanovaya said "reveals a dismissive and inaccurate understanding of how Moscow formulates its positions."
In a post on X, she said that "although the concessions to Russia appear substantial, the plan would also require Moscow to abandon some of its earlier conditions -- for example, the more radical reduction of Ukraine's armed forces or parts of the political reform package," a reference to Russia's call for political change in Ukraine.
"I am not suggesting that Putin would reject the plan outright, but he would almost certainly insist on scrupulous work on the formulations and on putting every commitment down on paper in detailed form," said Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
Putin has not commented publicly on the proposal, which multiple Western media outlets have cited sources as saying was largely the product of talks between Witkoff and a special envoy for Putin, Kirill Dmitriev.
But a Kremlin spokesman said on November 21 that Moscow would "prefer to treat bilateral [Russian-US] and the Ukraine settlement as two different tracks," a remark that reflected what analysts say is the Kremlin's clear desire to improve its US ties without making concessions on Ukraine.
"But there has not really been much headway on the irritants," Peskov said, adding the United States was to blame, in Moscow's eyes, "because the American side has a different point of view. They still believe that everything should depend on how we move forward in the Ukraine settlement process."
Many analysts say Putin will not agree to any peace deal he believes would undermine Russian efforts to subjugate Ukraine by force, diplomacy, or a combination of the two.
