Ukraine

Ukraine’s president is likely to seek a strong show of support from his European partners on Monday after being admonished by President Trump, who accused him of failing to read a proposal written by the White House to end Russia’s ongoing war against his country.

Speaking Sunday afternoon to reporters on the red carpet before the Kennedy Center Honors At the ceremony, Trump said he was disappointed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s response to the plan to end Russia’s nearly four-year invasion, while stating that Russia had supported the proposal.

“I’m a little disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t read the proposal yet, that was a few hours ago,” Trump said, adding, “His people love it. But he hasn’t; Russia is fine with it. I think Russia is fine with it, but I’m not sure Zelenskyy is fine with it.”

Zelenskyy has not made any public comments on Trump’s comments. News themezone has contacted Zelenskyy’s team for comment.

That assessment by Trump came despite a senior Kremlin official telling reporters after talks last week in Moscow between senior White House envoys and Vladimir Putin and his top advisers that they were “no closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine.”

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff meetings held over the weekend in Florida with Ukrainian representatives. They said in a joint statement that “both sides agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia’s willingness to show a serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward reducing tensions and stopping the killing.”

Trump spoke Sunday just hours before Zelenskyy met in London with the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

The show of European unity was expected to prompt Zelenskyy to continue his delicate diplomatic tightrope walk. He is embracing continued negotiations as he tries to keep Trump on his side and maintain critical American military and intelligence support. He is also resisting pressure from the White House to accept a ceasefire agreement that Zelenskyy and his European supporters say favors Russia.

Zelenskyy previously said “the main problem” with the proposal was that it would legally recognize “stolen” territory occupied by Russian forces during the invasion, which European leaders warned would set a dangerous precedent.

Ukraine’s leader will be keen to demonstrate that he still has strong and unanimous backing from his European partners as negotiations continue over the still-ambiguous details of the US-brokered proposal.

In addition to the impasse over Ukraine’s agreement to formally cede territory to Russia, other sticking points in the talks include measures to ensure Ukraine’s security is guaranteed in the future, due to concerns that Russia could try to invade again.

Meanwhile, the priorities of Ukraine and its European backers – effectively undermining any ceasefire agreement that Russia can legitimately call a victory – appear at odds with some very basic tenets of White House policy.

On Friday, the Trump administration released a sweeping new National Security Strategy document that states, among other things, that the United States wants to improve relations with Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the document detailing the Trump administration’s core foreign policy goals “absolutely corresponds to our vision.”

Russia has for years tried to drive a wedge between the United States and its NATO allies, and particularly between Washington and Ukraine’s main backers on the continent.

“If we read the part about Ukraine carefully, we can understand why Moscow shares this vision,” European Council President Antonio Costa said Monday. “The objective of this strategy is not a just and lasting peace. It is only [about] the end of hostilities [in Ukraine] and the stability of relations with Russia.

“Everyone wants stable relations with Russia,” Costa added, but “we cannot have stable relations with Russia when Russia remains a threat to our security.”