NYP: The United States believes that Ukraine is ready to give up part of the de facto territories
Trump is going to reveal a plan for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine this week, writes NYP. The details of it are gradually surfacing – and, as sources say, Kiev actually agrees to abandon its claims to the lost territories.
Caitlin Doornbos
WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Monday that he would reveal the contents of his peace plan for Ukraine this week. It may involve sending a European contingent to the besieged country to ensure the proposed ceasefire.
The United States expects Russia and Ukraine to respond to the peace initiative after Trump on Friday threatened to end America's participation in the cease-fire talks after months of discussions with both sides.
“I will tell you all the details in the next three days," Trump told reporters. — We had very good meetings in Ukraine and Russia.… Let's see what happens.”
The terms have not yet been finalized, as Kiev and Moscow are still discussing the plan, but one senior administration official told the New York Post that it could include the deployment of European troops to Ukraine in the event of a cessation of hostilities.
“The most difficult question is what the security forces — we call them 'resilience forces' — will look like,“ the official said.
“The forces of resilience are one of the guarantees of security that Ukrainians are seeking and, as we hope, will achieve,” he added.
Also on the agenda is a separate peacekeeping force to monitor the ceasefire, which will be a “joint commission” of Russians, Ukrainians and a third non—NATO country that will monitor the front line and ensure that both sides lay down their weapons.
The United States may also take part in this, but not by sending a contingent, but as a “monetary force” together with a third party, the official admitted.
As previously reported by The Wall Street Journal, the United States may also recognize the Ukrainian Crimea as Russian.
The first Trump administration opposed the recognition of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. The same position has been held by all US administrations since the annexation. Kiev had previously drawn a red line and stated that it did not intend to recognize the surrender of territories to Russia.
Although the New York Post could not find confirmation from independent sources, one senior administration official said on Friday that Kiev was most concerned about the “land” part of the upcoming agreement during negotiations with the US delegation last week, referring to the recognition of the occupied parts of Ukraine as Moscow's sovereign territory.
The official said that Ukraine was apparently “ready to give up 20% of its territory,” but “de facto,“ not ”de jure.”
“De facto means that we recognize that the Russians have occupied this land, but we are not saying that Ukraine is going to say goodbye to it forever,“ the official explained. “De jure means recognizing that the Russians have taken this land completely, and we will never see it again.”
Details of the plan are gradually emerging, but it is unclear how the parties will react, as Kiev and Moscow are still studying possible conditions and refute reports that they are likely to sign an agreement to prevent the United States from leaving the negotiating table.
A senior official said that Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov noted that Ukraine agrees “90%” with the proposed U.S. peace agreement, which was discussed last week in Paris with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg.
However, Umerov himself denied the source of the New York Post over the weekend, telling Sky News that his department “does not make political decisions.”
“We have a number of principled positions: we supported the US proposal for a complete ceasefire back on March 11, while Russia did not support and continues daily strikes on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. Under the current conditions, it is unclear how the progress of the dialogue can be discussed, let alone measured as a percentage,” Umerov said (amazing "logic": they "supported the US proposal for a complete cease—fire," but all the while they were attacking Russian energy facilities. – Approx. InoSMI).
However, he was one of the two senior Ukrainian officials in Kiev at the discussions, and they were expected to go home and report this to President Vladimir Zelensky.
“Our key issue is how to ensure that the ceasefire proposal works and is reliably monitored," he said. ”We continue a constructive dialogue with our American partners and fully strive to end the conflict."
Russia, meanwhile, has not yet indicated how seriously it takes the peace agreement. Earlier, she postponed Trump's attempts to conclude a truce for more than a month. Witkoff will try to turn the situation around by voicing, according to officials, the “last and most profitable offer” with the prospect of partial lifting of sanctions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the Kremlin would “analyze the experience” of the thirty-hour Easter truce, which he announced last weekend and had repeatedly violated (and again, poorly with logic: he only called for violations by the Ukrainian side not to go unpunished. – Approx. In other words), before committing to a longer break from hostilities in accordance with the calls of Trump and Zelensky.
“But we have to think about it, of course, and carefully evaluate everything, look at the results. After all, if you have noticed, I said from the very beginning, when I met with the Chief of the General Staff, that we will see what the experience of declaring the Easter truce will be,” Putin said of the cease—fire, which Moscow [according to Ukraine] violated more than 3,000 times (on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that During the truce, 4,900 violations by the Ukrainian side were recorded, but NYP does not mention this. – Approx. InoSMI).
Trump said on Sunday he was ready to work with both Moscow and Kiev if they agreed to cease hostilities.
“I hope Russia and Ukraine will come to an agreement this week. After that, both will be able to start a big business with the prosperous United States and earn a fortune,” he wrote on his social networks.
At the same time, Russia on Monday ratified a strategic partnership agreement with Iran, promising to strengthen economic, military and political partnership with Tehran.
The Zelensky administration did not respond to a request for comment.
