Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has reaffirmed that his country has no intention of conceding territory to Russia as talks over a U.S.-proposed peace plan continue with no clear end in sight.
“We absolutely don’t want to give up anything. That’s what we’re fighting for,” Zelenskiy said. “We have no legal right to do so under Ukrainian law, the constitution, international law or, to be honest, moral law.”
Russia has insisted on territorial concessions as part of a settlement to stop the invasion of Ukraine. The original plan proposed by President Donald Trump outlined some of these concessions. Earlier Monday, Trump accused Zelensky of not reading the latest version of the proposal.
Zelenskyy met with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany in London and then flew to Brussels to meet with officials from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU), where he said the talks had made progress. He said the peace plan was being finalized and was scheduled to be sent to the United States on Tuesday.
“We are making some progress toward a possible end to the war…I think we will have a plan tomorrow. We will discuss it again in the evening and send it to the United States,” Zelenskiy said.
The Ukrainian leader added that President Trump’s original 28-point peace plan, which was criticized as favoring Russia, had been reduced to a 20-point plan. “The anti-Ukrainian comments have been canceled,” Zelenskiy said.
But he acknowledged that the US was “looking for a compromise.”
Zelenskiy met with three European leaders in London on Monday and raised the “sensitive issues” of Ukraine’s security and control of the eastern region.
Ahead of the meeting, Zelenskiy said it was urgent that Europeans and Americans showed “unity” to resist Russian aggression and hasten the end of the conflict.
“There are some things that we can’t manage without Americans, we can’t manage without Europe. That’s why we have to make some important decisions,” Zelenskiy said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who hosted Zelenskiy along with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, stressed: “We have and will continue to strongly support Ukraine… because we all know that the fate of this country is the fate of Europe.”
However, following the announcement of the Trump administration’s new “America First” national security strategy, which is deeply critical of Europe, there are concerns that the United States’ interest in defending Ukraine against Russian aggression after nearly four years may be waning.
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., suggested on Sunday that President Trump may withdraw from Ukraine peace efforts. “What’s unique about my dad is that you never know what he’s going to do,” he said.
Also on Sunday, President Trump criticized President Zelenskiy after weekend talks between U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators in Miami ended with unresolved questions over security and territorial issues and continued concerns that the U.S. offer was tilted in Russia’s favor.
Trump said Russia wants to take control of all of Ukraine and believes Russia is “fine” with the peace plan, but added: “I don’t know if Mr. Zelensky is in favor of it.”
President Zelenskiy said on Monday that the United States had not yet reached an agreement on the future of Ukraine’s Donbass region, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
He said Kiev also wanted another agreement on security from Western allies, especially the United States. “There is one question that I, and all Ukrainians, would like to have answered: What will our partners do if Russia goes to war again?” Zelenskiy said. “There are issues related to Europe, and we cannot make decisions about Europe. We need to talk with Europe about Ukraine’s membership in the EU, which is also part of our national security.”
Zelenskiy added that he was willing to fly to the United States “if the president is ready for such a meeting.”
Trump’s remarks came as the Kremlin welcomed his administration’s new national security strategy, a foreign policy realignment that takes an unprecedented confrontational stance toward Europe.
In contrast to past administrations, language describing Russia as a threat has been removed from the US national security strategy document. The new document says European countries consider Moscow an “existential threat” and make the United States the central intermediary for re-establishing “conditions of intra-European stability and strategic stability with Russia.”
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to praise the strategy and praised the US president as “strong.”
“I would say that the adjustments we are seeing are in many respects consistent with our vision,” Peskov said, adding, “Perhaps we can hope that this will at least be a modest guarantee that it will be possible to continue to cooperate constructively towards a peaceful solution to Ukraine.”
The timing is worrying for European leaders. The United States is taking the reins of Ukraine peace talks at the same time as it hardens its stance toward Europe, raising concerns that the changes could affect negotiations at a critical moment.
European leaders said they were meeting to “assess” the situation after three days of talks between U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators in Miami failed to produce a solution.
“Difficult issues remain,” Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Olga Stefanishina said on Saturday, “but both sides continue to work to form a realistic and acceptable solution.”
Amid diplomatic back-and-forth, Russia launched its largest barrage of drones and missiles across Ukraine in months, killing at least seven people over the weekend, according to a CNN tally of local officials. More than a dozen people were injured.
President Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Russia had launched more than 1,600 attack drones, about 1,200 guided air bombs and about 70 missiles against Ukraine in the past week. He said the strike’s main target was infrastructure that “maintains daily life.”
According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy, airstrikes targeted energy infrastructure in various regions over the weekend. Consumers in Odessa, Chernihiv, Kiev, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions lost power on Saturday, the ministry said. And on Sunday, a power outage plan was introduced across Ukraine, including Kiev, leaving residents of the capital without power for about 12 hours.
Ukraine’s military said Saturday it had carried out a nighttime attack on the Ryazan oil refinery in western Russia, one of the country’s largest refineries. Moscow did not immediately respond to the allegations.
Meanwhile, two more incidents involving unidentified drones flying near the country’s coastlines are being investigated in Ireland and France this week, the latest in a string of unexplained sightings in several European countries since September. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the wave of drone incursions a “hybrid war.”
Early last week, drones were seen flying off the coast of Dublin just as the plane carrying Mr Zelenskiy was about to land for a visit with the Irish Prime Minister.
CNN’s Jesse Yang, Max Saltman, Jennifer Hansler, Alejandra Jaramillo, Mitchell McCluskey and Victoria Butenko contributed to this report.
