Triumph

Desperate to claim victory on the international stage as his poll numbers slide at home, President Donald Trump has mounted an aggressive campaign to finally achieve one of his 2024 campaign goals: ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine, although not in 24 hours as he initially promised.

Despite projecting optimism that he can take the long-awaited deal over the finish line, some of the most delicate issues remain unresolved as his administration continues to send mixed signals about its intentions.

The Trump administration last week unveiled a 28-point peace plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Trump set a Thanksgiving deadline for Ukraine to respond, alarming the United States’ traditional allies in Europe, including kyiv itself.

The proposal was reportedly drafted by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy, during meetings in Miami, according to Axios. Unsurprisingly, the result favors Russia, the aggressor that launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, raising new concerns that the Trump administration is out to ruin Ukraine.

kyiv has since held talks with U.S. officials seeking to win concessions on some of the most contentious aspects of the proposal.

Trump said Tuesday that the peace plan “has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides, and only a few points of disagreement remain.”

A senior Ukrainian source with direct knowledge of the negotiations told CNN that three major sticking points remain. Those three issues concern control of territories in eastern Ukraine that Russia has yet to conquer, the possible reduction in the size of Ukraine’s army and whether the war-torn country will agree to permanently give up joining the NATO military alliance, according to CNN.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Wednesday that it is “premature” to comment on whether the end of the war is near.

Against a backdrop of uncertainty over whether a deal is possible, it is unclear whether Trump is willing to pressure Russia to make significant concessions.

“Well, they’re making concessions,” Trump told reporters Tuesday on Air Force One. “Their big concession is to stop fighting and not take any more land.”

He also reportedly rejected an offer from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to travel to the United States to meet with him, saying the visit should happen only after a deal is reached.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Witkoff gave advice to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, on how to discuss a possible peace plan with Trump during an October 14 call. (Trump defended Witkoff’s approach.)

Andrew Harnik via Getty Images

The latest diplomatic push comes as Zelenskyy is dealing with the fallout from a major corruption scandal in his country that has engulfed members of his inner circle.

Doug Klain, deputy director of policy and strategy at the pro-Ukraine advocacy group Razom, said he thinks it’s probably no coincidence that this latest diplomatic effort is gaining steam while Zelenskyy is weathering a domestic crisis.

“From the outside, Zelenskyy may have appeared quite weak and under pressure from within Ukraine, and I think for some in the White House and in the Kremlin, the time seemed ripe to employ another maximum pressure campaign to try to force Ukraine to accept an unfavorable deal,” Klain told News themezone.

Klain added that while Ukrainians hold their government accountable, “I think we’ve seen in the last week that Ukrainians are able to recognize when there is a greater external threat.”

“Ukrainians really seemed to come together and try to present a common front against this external pressure,” Klain said. “So it’s a real misinterpretation of Ukrainian policy by the White House and the Kremlin.”

AP Photo/Christophe Ena, swimming pool

European leaders, who are also closely monitoring the negotiations, have stayed the course, rejecting the 28-point plan while doing everything they can to keep Trump engaged as his support remains crucial to Ukraine’s war effort.

“Europe can do a lot, and it could do more, and it can spend more money, and it can build more things,” Richard Fontaine, executive director of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank, told the New York Times. “But it cannot replace the United States as a security and intelligence partner.”

Klain told News themezone that another important part of the equation will be how Congress acts and whether it decides to “reassert its authority in foreign affairs, something it has largely abdicated to President Trump.”

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said he considered resigning from Congress over the original peace proposal and told Axios it made him very angry. Bacon signed a discharge petition distributed by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) on Friday to force a vote to impose new sanctions on Russia.

Bacon also had harsh words for Witkoff, one of Trump’s top negotiators, following the publication of his call with Ushakov.

“For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign and democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,” Bacon wrote on Tuesday X. “He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a paid Russian agent do less than him?”