Sybiha spoke on the phone with the foreign ministers of France, Great Britain, Poland and Finland, the EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and representatives of Italy and Germany, as he announced on Friday evening on the online service X. He informed his European partners of the results of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “recent contacts” and explained “the logic of our further steps.”
Zelenskyj discussed the US move on Friday with Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Later, Merz also spoke to Trump on the phone. It was a “good and confidential phone call,” Merz wrote in the online service X.
Zelenskyj also spoke on the phone with US Vice President JD Vance and Pentagon Secretary of State Dan Driscoll. In the almost hour-long phone call, he emphasized that Ukraine “has always respected US President Donald Trump’s wish to put an end to the bloodshed and continues to do so,” Zelensky said in online services.
On Wednesday it became known that the USA had drawn up a 28-point plan to resolve the war in Ukraine. In its current form, the US proposal, which incorporates key demands from Moscow, would effectively amount to a surrender by Ukraine. He is demanding painful concessions from Ukraine, such as the cession of large areas in eastern Ukraine to Russia, a limit on troop numbers, a waiver of NATO membership and early elections.
Russia, on the other hand, would not only gain territory, but would also be reintegrated into the global economy and included in the G8 group of states, according to the draft plan seen by the AFP news agency.
The European allies were bypassed with the 28-point plan, Zelensky rejected it in its current form. He would not “betray” his country, he said in a speech to the nation on Friday. Ukraine faces a “very difficult decision”; it will either lose its “dignity” or an “important partner.”
US President Trump gave Ukraine less than a week to sign. He called on Kyiv to agree to his plan by Thursday. “We think Thursday is an appropriate time,” Trump told Fox News on Friday.
After Zelensky’s reaction to the US plan, Trump later followed up again. “He has to approve of it, and if he doesn’t approve of it, then they should just keep fighting,” he told reporters at the White House. Trump said of Zelensky: “At some point he will have to accept something.”
About the Ukrainian forces, Trump said: “Say what you will, they were very brave.” When asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin might attack other countries in Europe in 2022 after attacking Ukraine, Trump replied that Putin “is not seeking another war.”
White House sources told AFP that Trump was working with both Kiev and Moscow to end the war “as quickly as possible.” According to the White House, the 28-point plan is still a “working document.”
Russia apparently sees itself vindicated by the US move and is urging Ukraine to negotiate immediately. Putin said Friday the U.S. plan could “lay the foundation for a final peace solution.” In addition, like Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, he previously emphasized that Kiev should agree quickly so as not to lose more land.
According to EU Commission President von der Leyen, European heads of state and government will meet on Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 summit “and then next week in Angola at the EU-AU meeting” and discuss the US plan. “We agree that nothing about Ukraine should be decided without Ukraine,” she told X after a conversation with Zelensky.
In Kiev, opinions were divided on whether Ukraine should accept the proposal and negotiate better terms or reject it as a capitulation. The 41-year-old seamstress Janina believes that the US plan will lead to nothing and the war will continue. “Neither we nor Russia will make concessions,” she told AFP.
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