Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says Kyiv ‘geared up for clear and honest work’ as U.S. pushes for progress on peace plan
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outside the West Wing of the White House on October 17, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Kyiv is “geared up for clear and honest work” to develop a peace plan to end the country’s war with Russia, after being presented with draft proposals by U.S. delegates.
On Tuesday, Axios reported that a secret peace deal was being drawn up by Washington and Moscow, with some media outlets reporting a breakthrough could be imminent. The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia has yet to receive official communications from the U.S. on the plan, according to news agency Reuters. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, reportedly said Moscow was open to talks.
In a post on the social networking site Telegram, Zelenskyy said he had met with a high-level U.S. delegation on Thursday and engaged in “a very serious conversation.”
“The American side presented its proposals — the points of a plan to end the war — their vision,” he said.
The 28-point peace plan drawn up by the U.S. and Russia is reported to include proposals for Ukraine to give up territory in its eastern Donbas region and halve its armed forces, among other conditions.
Zelenskyy — who has previously rejected the notion that Kyiv could concede land to Moscow in exchange for peace — hinted in his post on Thursday that his position on maintaining Ukrainian borders remains unchanged.
“From the first days of the war, we have upheld one very simple position: Ukraine needs peace … with terms that respect our independence, our sovereignty, and the dignity of the Ukrainian people,” he said.
“I outlined our key principles. And we agreed that our teams will work on these proposals to ensure it’s all genuine … We’re geared up for clear and honest work — Ukraine, the United States, and our friends and partners in Europe and around the world.”
European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called for Europe to have a seat at the negotiating table as peace plans were hashed out.
“In this war, there is one aggressor and one victim. So far, we haven’t heard of any concessions from Russia’s side,” she told reporters.
Zelenskyy added in his statement on Thursday that Kyiv “will not make any sharp statements,” and that he expects to speak with U.S. President Donald Trump in the coming days.
“We are fully aware that America’s strength and America’s support can truly bring peace closer, and we do not want to lose that,” he said. “The United States has the power to ensure that Russia’s willingness to end the war finally becomes serious. I will continue working for this one hundred percent.”
Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on Friday that talks were ongoing with a U.S. delegation in Kyiv.
“We are carefully reviewing all proposals from our partners and expect the same respectful approach to Ukraine’s position,” he said in a post on X. “We are thoroughly working through our partners’ proposals within Ukraine’s unchanging principles — sovereignty, the safety of our people, and a just peace.”
U.S. plan ‘would leave Ukraine totally vulnerable’
Guntram Wolff, senior fellow at Bruegel told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Friday that the deal was unlikely to be approved in its current form.
“When I saw the details of this peace plan … I really don’t think it can fly, because at the core, what it says is that Ukraine should give up significant parts of its military personnel, meaning the military personnel would decrease by something like a third from 900,000 to 600,000, and there wouldn’t be any NATO troops in Ukraine,” he said.
“That would leave Ukraine totally vulnerable to a renewed attack from Russia at a later stage — and we know how this has gone in the past. There’s some sort of a ceasefire, and within a few months, Russia can decide to re-attack. I think really, if we want a peace plan, it needs to be one where Ukraine has the strength and the capacity to defend itself, if necessary.”
Meanwhile, Michael O’Hanlon, Brookings Institute director of foreign policy research, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Thursday that he had an “unfavorable” view of the proposed peace plan.
“Giving up any land voluntarily when Russia has stolen 19% of Ukraine already since 2014 just seems completely illegitimate,” he said.
“It’s one thing to be pragmatic and to say we’re not going to be able to help Ukraine push back Russian gains, and therefore let’s just try to end the killing. It’s something else altogether to somehow make Russia’s claims look legitimate and concede some of them when they haven’t even been attained on the battlefield.”
Back in 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, a peninsula in southern Ukraine.
O’Hanlon argued on Thursday that concession of territory was “not the worst” of the peace proposals reportedly put forward by the U.S. and Russia.
“The worst of it, from what we hear and see at least, is that Ukraine would be sharply circumscribed in what it could do about its own defense going forward,” he told CNBC, adding that this would impact Ukrain’s sovereignty and ability to make its own military decisions.
“I have no problem with President Trump saying that Ukraine should not join NATO,” he added. “But it’s something else altogether to deny Ukraine the ability to build its own self defenses, when in fact, Russia has been the aggressor in this war, and Russia could be an aggressor in a future war.”
