(Al Jazeera Media Network) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country risks losing its dignity and freedom — or Washington’s backing — as it mulls a United States plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war that observers say endorses many of Moscow’s demands.
In a speech delivered on Friday in the street outside his office, Zelenskyy appealed to Ukrainians for unity and said he would never betray Ukraine.
“Now is one of the most difficult moments of our history … Now, Ukraine can face a very difficult choice — either losing dignity or risk losing a major partner,” the Ukrainian leader said.
“I will fight 24/7 to ensure that at least two points in the plan are not overlooked – the dignity and freedom of Ukrainians,” he added.
Zelenskyy’s comments come as US President Donald Trump appears to have given Kyiv less than a week to agree to his 28-point proposal to end the war, nearly four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Trump told Fox News Radio on Friday that he believed next Thursday was “an appropriate” deadline for Ukraine to accept the deal.
Citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Reuters news agency reported that the Trump administration has threatened to cut Kyiv off from intelligence sharing and weapons supplies to pressure it into accepting the plan.
According to media reports this week, the US proposal includes several stipulations that Russia has been pushing for, including that Ukraine cede additional territory, curb the size of its military and be barred from joining NATO.
At the same time, the West would lift sanctions on Russia, and Moscow would be invited back into the Group of Eight (G8), which it was expelled from for seizing and annexing Crimea in 2014, the AFP news agency said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the US proposal “a new version” of what was discussed with Washington in advance of a summit in Alaska earlier this year.
Noting that Moscow had received the “modernised plan”, Putin said during a meeting of Russia’s National Security Council on Friday that he believed it “could form the basis for a final peace settlement.”
But the Russian leader said that the “text has not been discussed with us in any substantive way, and I can guess why,” adding that Washington has so far been unable to gain Kyiv’s consent.
“Ukraine is against it. Apparently, Ukraine and its European allies are still under illusions and dream of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield,” Putin said.
As Ukraine faces mounting pressure from the Trump administration to agree to the deal, Ukrainian forces are also facing serious challenges on the battlefield and deadly bombings by Moscow.
At least 31 people were killed and 94 others wounded after a Russian missile attack struck a residential apartment block in the western city of Ternopil earlier this week, according to Ukrainian officials.
Separately, the Kremlin said about 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers were trapped on the eastern bank of the Oskil River, in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian military.
The report comes as Ukrainian forces have been trying to fend off a Russian attempt to seize the eastern cities of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, where fighting has raged. Russian forces have also been gaining ground in the region of Zaporizhzhia.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the country’s battlefield advances should convince Zelenskyy that “it is better to negotiate and do it now rather than later”.
“The space for the freedom of decision-making is shrinking for him as territories are lost,” Peskov told reporters.
Jim Townsend, a former US Defense Department official for Europe and NATO-related issues, said the situation on the battlefield and the Ukrainian military’s declining capabilities as the war continues, add to the pressure Ukraine faces to reach a deal.
“If the US pulls back and says, ‘Look if you’re not going to agree to this, we’re not going to be supporting you’, then there’s going to be a lot of pressure on Zelenskyy to take the agreement – no matter how hard it feels,” Townsend told Al Jazeera.
