Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said he thinks the US would issue additional Russian sanctions and sell more military aid to Kyiv should Russia reject Washington’s carefully crafted deal to end the war.
“I believe the United States will apply sanctions pressure and provide us with more weapons if [Putin] rejects everything,” he told reporters. “I think that would be a fair request from us to the Americans.”
While “plan A” is to push ahead with President Trump’s ambitious peace plan, Zelensky said “plan B” is “continuing to counter Russian aggression,” he told European leaders on Tuesday.
“In my view, the logic is this: if the United States is ready to provide security guarantees to Ukraine and to apply strong guarantees if Putin violates the agreement, then tell me honestly — how is that different from a situation in which Putin does not want to end the war?” Zelensky said.
US officials have largely avoided specifics on what would happen if Russia doesn’t bend to the American plan, instead focusing on pushing forward with the peace process over intensified, marathon talks with Ukrainian and Russian negotiators.
President Trump has said Ukraine will have to either agree to the plan “or they’ll have to keep fighting.” He has not said what he would do if the Kremlin rejects the US proposal.
Some experts say that outcome may be worth considering, as even the president himself has questioned whether Putin would be willing to end his war on Ukraine in exchange for the country’s Donbas region.
“As US envoys push Ukraine to accept even previously rejected Russian conditions, and as the United States and its European allies spar about the terms of the plans to end the war, Moscow watches, with no incentive to make concessions to achieve a durable peace,” the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center director and former US ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst wrote Tuesday.
It comes as American negotiators prepare to discuss the latest draft of the 20-point peace plan with Russia, whose leaders have objected to international forces on the ground in Ukraine — a key part of a security guarantee package that senior US officials on heralded as the “platinum standard.”
The package calls for “NATO-like” security guarantees for Ukraine to prevent Russia from pushing further West when the conflict ends, senior US officials said Monday. For that to happen, international forces would ned to monitor any future peace, verify violations and enforce punishments should they happen.
“President Trump’s very focused on reaching a conclusion to this conflict that really stops the Russians from moving west,” a senior US official told reporters Monday.
“Under President Bush, Russia moves west. Under President Obama, Russia moves west. Under President Biden, Russia moves west. President Trump really wants to see this as an agreement that ends that for good,” the person added.
So far, the United Kingdom and France have expressed openness to sending forces to Ukraine to assist in an international force. While the US would not provide boots on the ground, Trump has said Washington would support countries who do.
But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told ABC News on Monday that the Kremlin would not sign onto a deal that involved foreign forces on Kyiv’s territory.
“We definitely will not at any time subscribe to, agree to, or even be content with, any presence of NATO troops on Ukrainian territory,” he said, explaining that it would not matter if they were not there on official NATO orders, but as part of a security guarantee through Europe’s “Coalition of the Willing.”
Still, the proposed security guarantees are almost entirely agreed to among the US, Ukraine and Europeans, the senior US official said Monday.
“These are not conceptual discussions,” the person said. “These are now very in depth discussions that have happened over the last two weeks with NATO, Ukraine and the US and the documents are now basically agreed to at the working level.”
“It’s a security framework that Ukraine feels very, very comfortable with, and Europe feels very, very comfortable with.”
For now, the process continues — with Zelensky huddling with European leaders to drill down further on what they can provide as security guarantees.
Meanwhile, the senior US officials said Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner aim to brief Russia on their latest proposal to Ukraine — ahead of possible continued meetings with Kyiv in Miami this coming weekend.
