Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky faces growing pressure from the U.S. to accept major territorial losses and other concessions in President Trump's peace plan, two Ukrainian officials tell Axios.
Why it matters: After weeks of intense diplomacy, the Ukrainians still think aspects of the current U.S. plan favor Moscow and that the U.S. is pushing Zelensky much harder than they're pushing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- A U.S. official denied that, stressing that the U.S. also pressed Putin to soften his demands.
- Meanwhile, Zelensky is meeting a parade of Europe's most powerful leaders this week. They're offering reassurance that Ukraine doesn't need to give in to Putin, or to Trump.
Breaking it down: The negotiations have homed in on two issues: Russia's demand that Ukraine cede the entire Donbas region, including parts its forces don't control, and Ukraine's request for strong security guarantees from the U.S. to prevent future Russian aggression.
- A Ukrainian official said the U.S. offer had worsened, from Kyiv's perspective, after Trump's advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a five-hour meeting with Putin last week in the Kremlin.
- The official claimed Witkoff and Kushner seemed to want a clear "yes" from Zelensky when they discussed the plan with him in a two-hour call on Saturday.
- "It felt like the U.S. was trying to sell us in different ways the Russian desire to take the whole of Donbas and that the Americans wanted Zelensky to accept all of it in the phone call," the Ukrainian official said.
Driving the news: The call with Zelensky came at the end of three days of marathon talks between Witkoff, Kushner and Zelensky's advisers in Miami.
- While some progress was made, there were no breakthroughs on territory or on security guarantees, Ukrainian and U.S. officials said.
- Trump claimed Sunday that Zelensky's negotiators "love" the U.S. plan, and that he was "a little bit disappointed" to hear Zelensky hadn't read it.
- Trump also contended that Russia was "fine" with the U.S. plan, but Russian officials have made clear they have objections.
Between the lines: Zelensky said on the call with Witkoff and Kushner that he'd only received the U.S. proposal an hour earlier and hadn't read it yet, U.S. and Ukrainian officials say.
- A U.S. official said that was baffling because the U.S. transmitted the updated proposal a day earlier. A Ukrainian official said that while some documents were provided the day prior, others were received not long before the call.
- The Ukrainian official said the U.S. proposal included harsher terms than previous versions on issues like territory and control of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, and it left key questions unanswered on security guarantees.
- "There are major things about territory which need to be discussed more: who controls what, who stays where, who withdraws, and if Ukraine withdraws from the contact line, how to make sure that Russia does the same and [doesn't continue] with the fighting."
Friction point: Still, the Ukrainian official claimed, the U.S. side seemed to expect Zelensky to simply agree over the phone.
- The U.S. official insisted that the current draft was heavily influenced by input from the Ukrainians, and that Kushner and Witkoff had pressed Putin to agree to some Ukrainian demands.
- But the whole episode reflects the simmering distrust between the Zelensky and Trump administrations, despite the many hours their teams have spent negotiating.
State of play: On Monday, Zelensky met in London with the leaders of the U.K., France and Germany to project a joint position on Trump's plan.
- "We have a lot of cards in our hands," said French President Emmanuel Macron.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz added that he was "skeptical of some of the details that we see in the documents coming from the U.S. side," and stressed that there should be no doubt that Europe stands behind Ukraine.
- Zelensky's European tour will continue in Brussels and Rome.
Split screen: U.S. and Ukrainian officials say the Trump administration saw Zelensky's meeting on Downing Street as an unhelpful attempt to buy time in the negotiations over Trump's peace plan.
- Ukrainian officials said they feel the U.S. is trying to peel Zelensky away from the European leaders so they can pressure him more effectively. "Zelensky can't make such dramatic decisions without consulting his key allies in Europe," a Ukrainian official said.
- The official said that while the Trump administration is pressing Zelensky to move fast, the Europeans are advising caution and patience.
- That dynamic infuriates some in the White House who see the Europeans as a major obstacle to a deal.
What to watch: Zelensky said in a briefing with reporters on Monday that Ukraine and the European powers will give the U.S. an updated counterproposal on Tuesday.
- "Russia insists that we give up territory. We do not want to give anything up. That is exactly what we are fighting for. The Americans are currently looking for a compromise," he said.
- The Ukrainians and Europeans are also discussing security guarantees. A European official said it remained unclear what role the U.S. was prepared to play in enforcing the guarantee and what it expected of European allies.
- Two Ukrainian officials claimed the latest U.S. proposal on security guarantees was based on "a wider framework" than the original proposal, but it still did not include a Senate-ratified treaty.
