Ukraine cannot cede territory under its constitution, international law or moral law, President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a news conference, adding that the United States is seeking a compromise between Russia’s demands for Ukrainian land and Kyiv’s refusal to submit to Moscow.
Zelensky said a US-drafted peace plan has been pared back from 28 to 20 points, with what he called “overtly non-Ukrainian” provisions removed. Still unresolved, he noted, are territorial issues where there is no compromise, questions over where European funds should be directed, and the scope of security guarantees.
The president said Donald Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, are indeed working to end the war. But Kyiv is focused on the terms of any settlement and on guarantees that the conflict will not restart. Zelensky said his American counterpart, Donald Trump, genuinely wants to end the war but has “his own vision,” which differs from Ukraine’s.
Zelensky added that Ukraine, together with European partners, will refine its own peace plan by tomorrow and pass it to the United States.
On security guarantees, Zelensky said the strongest assurances would come from the United States- if they are approved by Congress, not in the form of the nonbinding Budapest Memorandum, according to RBC-Ukraine. “The strongest security guarantees we can receive are from the US - provided they are voted on in the US Congress,” he said.
He also said he expects the US to continue supplying weapons to Ukraine under the PURL program, arguing Washington profits from the arrangement and that it aligns with current US policy. Through PURL, Ukraine is primarily procuring air-defense systems. Kyiv needs $15 billion annually for the program and faces an $800 million shortfall for 2025.
Zelensky noted that some partners suggested swapping part of the temporarily occupied Donetsk region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for territories Russia has not yet captured, but said such a swap is not under consideration. He also claimed Russia is unable to hold certain territories.
Another meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” is expected this week to discuss its role in providing security guarantees to Ukraine.
Earlier, Zelensky met the leaders of Germany, France and the United Kingdom in London. He gave no immediate comment afterward but later wrote that they discussed joint diplomatic efforts with the American side. Politico has reported that territory is the key sticking point in US-Ukrainian talks, with Washington hoping to push Ukraine to accept what Russia demands—leaving all of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
On December 2, Trump advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Vladimir Putin in Russia for about five hours. Media reports say Moscow has laid out three demands it will not revisit in talks to end the war:
- Full control of Donbas, including all of Donetsk region and occupied Luhansk;
- Major limits on Ukraine’s armed forces, effectively depriving the country of the ability to defend itself;
- International recognition of Russian territorial seizures, especially by the US and European states.
