Zelensky Backs Slimmed-Down Peace Plan Russia Rejects Plan Concessions

 

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed major amendments to the controversial 28-point peace plan drafted in October by U.S. and Russian officials — a proposal that Kyiv and several European governments previously rejected as overly aligned with Moscow’s demands. Zelensky said the revised version now contains “many correct elements” and creates a framework that could become “doable,” signaling the first meaningful opening in weeks of diplomatic deadlock.

 

The shift comes after European allies — led by the UK, France, and Germany — produced their own counter-proposal, stripping out the most politically explosive points, including territorial concessions to Russia. According to Ukrainian officials, the new plan has been reduced to 19 points, with unresolved issues left to negotiations between Zelensky and President Donald Trump directly.

 

The developments follow emergency talks in Geneva between U.S. and Ukrainian officials, prompted by Trump’s warning that Ukraine risked losing U.S. backing if it rejected a deal by 27 November. Moscow did not attend the session and immediately dismissed the amended European-aligned plan as “completely unconstructive.”

 

Complicating diplomacy, Russia launched a major overnight barrage of missiles and drones against Kyiv, striking residential buildings and disrupting power and water networks. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry confirmed a “massive, combined enemy attack” on energy sites, with damage assessments underway once conditions allow.

 

The White House insisted it is not favoring Moscow, calling claims of a pro-Russia tilt “a complete and total fallacy.” Trump meanwhile hinted that “something good just may be happening” in negotiations, but cautioned supporters not to assume progress until agreements are confirmed.

 

European leaders will hold a virtual “coalition of the willing” meeting to coordinate their position, which keeps the door open to NATO membership for Ukraine and increases the proposed size of its military — directly contradicting Russia’s longstanding conditions.

 

Zelensky said the biggest obstacle remains Vladimir Putin’s demand for legal recognition of Russia-held territory — a non-starter for Kyiv. After nearly four years of war, tens of thousands of lives lost, and millions displaced, the gap between the sides remains vast.

 

Key Takeaways

• Zelensky welcomes a reduced 19-point plan, calling it more realistic after Europe removed pro-Russia concessions.

• Russia rejects the amended proposal outright, even as it escalates attacks on Kyiv.

• Europe forms a “coalition of the willing” to back Ukraine and push for a deal that preserves Kyiv’s territorial stance.

 

Source: BBC

 

 

 

I've heard that Putin rejected even the original made in Moscow plan.

Ok , further war to the last (willing) Ukranian.😄

13 minutes ago, FlorC said:

Ok , further war to the last (willing) Ukranian.😄

Typical pro Putin talking point.

The truth is that the vast majority of Ukrainians remain determined to resist being slaves of Russia.

Reasonable compromise is possible but surrender as long as Ukraine has "cards" and they do indeed have them is not.

1 hour ago, FlorC said:

Ok , further war to the last (willing) Ukranian.😄

Agree. The EU is more about weakening Russia than saving Ukraine. If the war continues, which is likely, it will end in victory for one side and defeat for the other. As it is Russia continues it's move toward the Dnipro River which is where IMO the battleline will be halted in the coming years. Indeed Zaporizhzhia located on the Dnipro may well fall in 6 months from now. The ground that Zelensky cannot give to the Russians will eventually be taken. This is reality not some pro-Russian talking point.

11 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Agree. The EU is more about weakening Russia than saving Ukraine. If the war continues, which is likely, it will end in victory for one side and defeat for the other. As it is Russia continues it's move toward the Dnipro River which is where IMO the battleline will be halted in the coming years. Indeed Zaporizhzhia located on the Dnipro may well fall in 6 months from now. The ground that Zelensky cannot give to the Russians will eventually be taken. This is reality not some pro-Russian talking point.

I call B.S.

"Eventually" could easily be 10 years. Putin doesn't have 10 years.

Russia has gained land but in tiny increments at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

You act like you can predict the future but you cannot.

1 hour ago, FlorC said:

Ok , further war to the last (willing) Ukranian.😄

Is the laughing emoji because you are sick?

Putin will not accept any peace plan as he has gotten Russia into a situation where the Kremlin can't afford to lose the war, or win it. 

Here's why. Can't lose for obvious reasons like his regime would collapse, he has isolated Russia internationally, brought down sanctions on Russia, lost over a million dead and many more wounded, put Russia into a war economy to survive, prices are going up fast for normal goods etc... he has to provide something tangible gained for the sacrifice and show the Russian public that it was worth it somehow.

Can't afford to win it really either because the new war economy now employs such a significant % of the population, and if suddenly it stops (win or lose) and that war production is no longer needed, then people will lose jobs, sanctions and isolation continue, Russian society could very easily errupt into chaos. On top of that, if Russia wins and gets what it wants, then how is it going to rebuild the Donbas and other oblasts it has taken that have pretty much been reduced to rubble? There's nothing left of them and the Kremlin certainly can't afford that bill. For Putin, carrying on with the fight makes the most sense... but he's kidding himself really, and the clock is ticking for the Kremlin as the Russian economy is getting fragile to say the least.

Quite the pickle for Putin and his ill-judged deluded invasion of a neighbour.

27 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I call B.S.

"Eventually" could easily be 10 years. Putin doesn't have 10 years.

Russia has gained land but in tiny increments at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

You act like you can predict the future but you cannot.

This month Russian forces will have captured more than 1000 km^2.  Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad are all but gone. Major loss for Ukraine. More cities are under huge threat and will fall under Russian control in the near future. Predicting the future you say? No. Just keeping up with how the battlefield is going (unlike you) and it's not going well for Ukraine.

7 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

This month Russian forces will have captured more than 1000 km^2.  Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad are all but gone. Major loss for Ukraine. More cities are under huge threat and will fall under Russian control in the near future. Predicting the future you say? No. Just keeping up with how the battlefield is going and it's not going well for Ukraine.

I think the major loss has been Putin's 4 years of losses, over a bit of land grab, wouldn't you agree.....?  🤫

Putin is trapped in a war of attrition where "victory" or "defeat" both risk regime-shattering fallout, so grinding on buys time while masking deeper cracks. Russian casualties are closer to 1 million total (killed + wounded), with ~250,000 dead. The war economy has propped up growth (~1% projected for 2025) but at huge cost: sanctions are eroding oil revenues by 15%+ next year, inflation's biting consumers, and GDP's 12% below potential. Rebuilding just Donbas (part of Ukraine's $524B total tab) would bankrupt Moscow amid isolation. Putins "inevitable victory" delusion via slow gains won't outlast the fragility.

Iuliia Mendel

@IuliiaMendel

Former press secretary to President Zelensky

 

 Every subsequent deal for Ukraine will only be worse — because we are losing. We are losing people, territory, and the economy. The EU (which by the way has paid Russia more than €311 billion for energy and goods since February 2022) has no real strategy, no way to stop fueling Russian budget or support Ukraine enough to win, no direct dialogue with Moscow, and no meaningful leverage over either the Kremlin or Washington. Arguments that “Russia has gained so little land” sound almost childish when you consider the human cost. We have lost more people in three years than some European nations have as the whole population. My country is bleeding out. Many who reflexively oppose every peace proposal believe they are defending Ukraine. With all respect, that is the clearest proof they have no idea what is actually happening on the front lines and inside the country right now. War is not a Hollywood movie. I will never abandon the values that God and democracy both place at the very foundation of human existence: human life is the highest good, and people — living, breathing people — are the ones who must be saved.

 

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

I call B.S.

"Eventually" could easily be 10 years. Putin doesn't have 10 years.

Russia has gained land but in tiny increments at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

You act like you can predict the future but you cannot.

estimated at 7,000 per week

12 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Iuliia Mendel

@IuliiaMendel

Former press secretary to President Zelensky

 

 Every subsequent deal for Ukraine will only be worse — because we are losing. We are losing people, territory, and the economy. The EU (which by the way has paid Russia more than €311 billion for energy and goods since February 2022) has no real strategy, no way to stop fueling Russian budget or support Ukraine enough to win, no direct dialogue with Moscow, and no meaningful leverage over either the Kremlin or Washington. Arguments that “Russia has gained so little land” sound almost childish when you consider the human cost. We have lost more people in three years than some European nations have as the whole population. My country is bleeding out. Many who reflexively oppose every peace proposal believe they are defending Ukraine. With all respect, that is the clearest proof they have no idea what is actually happening on the front lines and inside the country right now. War is not a Hollywood movie. I will never abandon the values that God and democracy both place at the very foundation of human existence: human life is the highest good, and people — living, breathing people — are the ones who must be saved.

 

 

Right. What does the present press secretary have to say about it?

12 minutes ago, BLMFem said:

 

Right. What does the present press secretary have to say about it?

Be interesting to know. I would think that many questions directed at the current press secretary would be about the massive scandal surrounding Zylensky..

Just now, dinsdale said:

Be interesting to know. I would think that most questions directed at the current press secretary would be about the massive scandal surrounding Zylensky..

Really? My question would have been "who is that person?".

2 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

Putin will not accept any peace plan as he has gotten Russia into a situation where the Kremlin can't afford to lose the war, or win it. 

Here's why. Can't lose for obvious reasons like his regime would collapse, he has isolated Russia internationally, brought down sanctions on Russia, lost over a million dead and many more wounded, put Russia into a war economy to survive, prices are going up fast for normal goods etc... he has to provide something tangible gained for the sacrifice and show the Russian public that it was worth it somehow.

Can't afford to win it really either because the new war economy now employs such a significant % of the population, and if suddenly it stops (win or lose) and that war production is no longer needed, then people will lose jobs, sanctions and isolation continue, Russian society could very easily errupt into chaos. On top of that, if Russia wins and gets what it wants, then how is it going to rebuild the Donbas and other oblasts it has taken that have pretty much been reduced to rubble? There's nothing left of them and the Kremlin certainly can't afford that bill. For Putin, carrying on with the fight makes the most sense... but he's kidding himself really, and the clock is ticking for the Kremlin as the Russian economy is getting fragile to say the least.

Quite the pickle for Putin and his ill-judged deluded invasion of a neighbour.

Good points — you highlighted the bind well.
Putin is between a rock and a hard place.

If Putin loses, the regime unravels.
If Putin wins, the war economy collapses — millions lose their jobs — and the Kremlin inherits a reconstruction bill it can’t pay.
And Putin’s pariah status, only deepens the trap — isolated, sanctioned, and dependent on partners who exploit its weakness.
Either way, the outcome is catastrophic for him.

It’s not stubbornness — it’s the absence of a credible exit.

So, the only rational path forward is for the West to step up with the support necessary to end the genocide — because the longer Putin remains trapped, the longer he inflicts further destruction on Ukraine.

In short: Putin can’t stop, so the West has to make him.

4 hours ago, dinsdale said:

This month Russian forces will have captured more than 1000 km^2.  Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad are all but gone. Major loss for Ukraine. More cities are under huge threat and will fall under Russian control in the near future. Predicting the future you say? No. Just keeping up with how the battlefield is going (unlike you) and it's not going well for Ukraine.

Source for "more than 1000 km²? It's not what my AI indicates (it may be wrong, that's why I ask).

Back to square one....🙂

 

Putin will reject the plan, Trump will threaten Russia then do practically nothing, will delay sanctions.... and later will blame Zelinski!

5 hours ago, dinsdale said:

This month Russian forces will have captured more than 1000 km^2.  Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad are all but gone. Major loss for Ukraine. More cities are under huge threat and will fall under Russian control in the near future. Predicting the future you say? No. Just keeping up with how the battlefield is going (unlike you) and it's not going well for Ukraine.

What does Russia plan on doing with this moonscape?  

4 hours ago, dinsdale said:

The EU (which by the way has paid Russia more than €311 billion for energy and goods since February 2022) has no real strategy, no way to stop fueling Russian budget or support Ukraine enough to win, no direct dialogue with Moscow, and no meaningful leverage over either the Kremlin or Washington

Are you trying to make the case that the EU is useless?  

Here's how the "Peace Plan" will eventually work.

1. Nobody will accept the other side's peace plan.
2. Both sides will blame the other side for "not wanting peace."
3. Hysterics and hyperbole will abound in the "only accepted 'truth' media" vendors
4. They'll be a 20th or 21st or whatever round of useless sanctions against Russia.
5. The fighting will continue with Russia continuing to grind Westward to the Dnieper River.
6. Ukraine, NATO, the US, and the collective West will issue statements that Russia is in collapse, Russia is losing, the ruble is rubble, Putin is dying, the End Is Near, Ukraine will win.
7. Ukraine will continue to be militarily defeated by Russia.
8. Trump will huff and puff and blow the house down - in Venezuela, Niger, and Iran.  

8 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Typical pro Putin talking point.

The truth is that the vast majority of Ukrainians remain determined to resist being slaves of Russia.

Reasonable compromise is possible but surrender as long as Ukraine has "cards" and they do indeed have them is not.

Do you have links for that or have you just made it up ? I will be in Jomtien next week we can meet up for a chat I don't bite !

7 hours ago, dinsdale said:

This month Russian forces will have captured more than 1000 km^2.  Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad are all but gone. Major loss for Ukraine. More cities are under huge threat and will fall under Russian control in the near future. Predicting the future you say? No. Just keeping up with how the battlefield is going (unlike you) and it's not going well for Ukraine.

More Kremlin lies.

 

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/11/25/russia-ukraine-war-offensive-2025/

Russiwww.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/11/25/russia-ukraine-war-offensive-2025/a’s 2025 saw few but steady advances in Ukraine - The Washington Post

Clad in military fatigues, President Vladimir Putin last week visited a Russian military command post, where commanders presented Russia’s brilliant advances, claiming to have conquered the Ukrainian city of Kupyansk — a view contradicted by open-source analysts reporting on the front line — and almost all of Pokrovsk.

 

But even if his generals were exaggerating again, the banner hanging behind Putin, “He who fights wins,” rammed home his message that despite it all, Russia is winning and Ukraine has no choice but to bow to Russian terms or be defeated.

 

Russia’s slow grind in 2025 has gained it less than an additional 1 percent of Ukrainian territory at a massive cost estimated at over 200,000 troops killed and wounded. But that is enough for the Russian president, who invariably exudes confidence in victory as he tries to shape the facts on the ground — a view that appears to have influenced President Donald Trump.

5 hours ago, LosLobo said:

Good points — you highlighted the bind well.
Putin is between a rock and a hard place.

If Putin loses, the regime unravels.
If Putin wins, the war economy collapses — millions lose their jobs — and the Kremlin inherits a reconstruction bill it can’t pay.
And Putin’s pariah status, only deepens the trap — isolated, sanctioned, and dependent on partners who exploit its weakness.
Either way, the outcome is catastrophic for him.

It’s not stubbornness — it’s the absence of a credible exit.

So, the only rational path forward is for the West to step up with the support necessary to end the genocide — because the longer Putin remains trapped, the longer he inflicts further destruction on Ukraine.

In short: Putin can’t stop, so the West has to make him.

 

Putin could well be replaced by someone worse. Hardcore Ukrainian supporters use "putin" and "ruzzia" as statements of support. The contenders all owe their positions to bending the knee to the Czar, and they and the security state the Siloviki stand together or hang together. With China invested in ensuring Russia doesn't fail (as it exposes their flank), and caring nothing for the brutal authoritarianism of it all, I say Russia holds. The West has neither the resources, the will, nor the ability to get boots on the ground. Ergo, Ukraine is losing and will lose. It's almost baked in by now, and the sooner folks both accept that reality and try to ameliorate the fallout, the better it will be for everybody. Time to put away the flags and virtue signalling and accept reality.What should concentrate minds is the most likely outcome: Ukraine's future viability as a functioning state.

 

https://theweek.com/feature/briefing/1024619/putins-potential-successors

2 hours ago, candide said:

Back to square one....🙂

 

Putin will reject the plan, Trump will threaten Russia then do practically nothing, will delay sanctions.... and later will blame Zelinski!

More making stuff up (again)

 

😆

16 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

 

Putin could well be replaced by someone worse. Hardcore Ukrainian supporters use "putin" and "ruzzia" as statements of support. The contenders all owe their positions to bending the knee to the Czar, and they and the security state the Siloviki stand together or hang together. With China invested in ensuring Russia doesn't fail (as it exposes their flank), and caring nothing for the brutal authoritarianism of it all, I say Russia holds. The West has neither the resources, the will, nor the ability to get boots on the ground. Ergo, Ukraine is losing and will lose. It's almost baked in by now, and the sooner folks both accept that reality and try to ameliorate the fallout, the better it will be for everybody. Time to put away the flags and virtue signalling and accept reality.What should concentrate minds is the most likely outcome: Ukraine's future viability as a functioning state.

 

https://theweek.com/feature/briefing/1024619/putins-potential-successors

A good article based in reality. Sadly some are slow to or unwilling to accept it. Here is the DeepState map (Ukrainian MOD) just of the Povrosk/Myrnohrad region this year (Jan 1 and Nov 25). In a war of attrition km² gained is not the priority. Attriting the enemy is.

https://deepstatemap.live/en#10/48.3879533/37.2538623

 

The real victims in Trumps heroic negotiated peace deal finally ending the senseless killing are the worldwide left. They had so much emotion invested in ensuring the war dragged on and worsened steadily. To see this MOA rug pull on the poor lefties is devastating. I'm thinking CNN and the rest can conjure up wild narratives about Venezuela and we can use it as a substitute so they get to play armchair generals again?

 

Anyway, butthurt lefties aside, marvellous job Mr Trump. You did what the warmongering democrats had no chance in achieving.

1 minute ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

The real victims in Trumps heroic negotiated peace deal finally ending the senseless killing are the worldwide left. They had so much emotion invested in ensuring the war dragged on and worsened steadily. To see this MOA rug pull on the poor lefties is devastating. I'm thinking CNN and the rest can conjure up wild narratives about Venezuela and we can use it as a substitute so they get to play armchair generals again?

 

Anyway, butthurt lefties aside, marvellous job Mr Trump. You did what the warmongering democrats had no chance in achieving.

If you asked Sleepy Joe about Ukraine he would probably amswer are you sure it's looks like it's sunny to me !

We are close I feel it in my bones. Let's hope that Herr Putler keeps his side of the bargain.