A peace plan for Ukraine will be drawn up in 7-10 days: Russia is unlikely to accept it, — Zelensky

Share: In an interview with Axios, Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Ukraine and Europe will work out a peace plan with Europe within 7-10 days, which includes a ceasefire clause, but he is skeptical about the Russian Federation. "The plan should be short, without unnecessary details. A few short points. For example, the ceasefire plan. We have decided that we will work on it during the next week or ten days," the Ukrainian president said in a 35-minute interview with journalists.

After the meeting between Trump and Zelenskyi, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer proposed putting forward a peace proposal modeled on Trump's plan for Gaza. Last week, the president of Ukraine discussed this issue with Starmer and other European leaders. He told them that the situation in Gaza and Ukraine is different, but he is ready to work on it. He emphasized that he is skeptical about Putin's willingness to accept any peace plan.

Zelenskyi also mentioned his meeting with US President Donald Trump, noting that the American colleague is "concerned about the escalation". "But I think that if there are no negotiations, the escalation will happen anyway. I think that if Putin does not stop, we need something to stop him. Sanctions are one such tool, but we also need long-range missiles," Zelenskyy said.

At the meeting in the White House, there was an ardent exchange of views regarding possible plans for a peace agreement and Ukraine's desire to receive Tomahawk long-range missiles. Zelensky called the conversation "constructive", but admitted that it was not easy. "My talks with President Trump were about putting pressure on Russia. I think he wanted to put pressure on Russia, but he didn't want to escalate or close the window. . . for diplomacy," he said.

According to Zelenskyi, he and Trump "understood each other": "President Trump said that we need to freeze the current situation and start a dialogue. " Trump publicly emphasized the idea after the meeting. But after Putin took a more maximalist stance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ended in a stalemate, the Trump-Putin summit in Budapest was canceled.

Now the US sanctions against the Russian Federation have caused a very negative reaction among Russians, Zelensky recalled the belligerent statements of President Dmitry Medvedev and "anti-American and anti-Trump rhetoric" in the Russian state media. Zelenskyi said that, according to Ukraine's estimates, the new US sanctions against Russian oil companies could reduce oil exports by 50%, which means a loss of income of up to 5 billion dollars per month.

Zelensky said that he hopes for "new secondary sanctions" and "parallel steps by Congress. " And he, as before, believes that the way to force Putin to enter into serious negotiations is to give Ukraine the opportunity to strike military and energy facilities in the depths of Russian territory. According to him, he told Trump that Ukraine would not even have to use missiles immediately.

Zelensky said that if Putin knows that silence threatens "problems with Russian energy facilities", then he will speak. "We are not only talking about Tomahawks. There are many similar weapons in the USA, the preparation of which does not take much time. I think that it is possible to work with Putin only because of pressure," Zelensky said. It will be recalled that Zelensky also spoke about the fact that Putin is lying to Donald Trump about the successes of the Russian army in the war in Ukraine.