Donald Trump to let Vladimir Putin keep occupied Ukrainian land in major blow to Volodymyr Zelensky’s ‘red line’

The White House has put together a new peace proposal made up of seven main ideas. This plan is going to be shared with Ukraine today in London. According to the proposal, Donald Trump would allow Vladimir Putin to keep nearly all the parts of Ukraine that Russia has already taken over. The goal is to stop the war and reach a peace agreement.

This move would be a serious challenge for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Just last month, he made it clear that Ukraine will not accept any deal that recognizes Russian control over its occupied lands. Zelensky said that if Ukraine’s territory is not fully respected, then making peace would be very hard. In March, he said, “Our red line is that we will never accept these occupied parts of Ukraine as Russian.”

One of the key areas being discussed is Crimea, a region in southern Ukraine that Russia took over illegally in 2014. The new US plan would officially recognize Crimea as part of Russia, something that Ukraine and many other countries strongly oppose.

The peace proposal would also freeze the current battle lines, meaning Russia would keep most of the areas it has taken during the war. This includes large parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia—regions Russia has controlled since the full invasion started in 2022.

Even though Ukraine would lose some of its land, the plan would give it back access to the mouth of the Dnieper River and force Russia to pull out of another part of Kherson.

The plan will be presented to Ukraine today by US representative General Keith Kellogg. After that, his colleague Steve Witkoff will head to Moscow to try to convince Russia to agree.

If Ukraine agrees to this deal, it would lose a big portion of its territory without getting any solid promises of protection from the United States, as the plan doesn’t include any security guarantee.

Donald Trump had once claimed he could end the war in just one day if re-elected, although he later admitted that he was being “a little bit sarcastic” when he said that. Recently, he was asked how long it would take to end the war, and he replied, “No exact number of days, but we want to do it quickly.”

The first part of the peace plan aims for an immediate ceasefire and direct talks between Russia and Ukraine. The second part reinforces this. The third part would stop Ukraine from ever joining NATO.

The fourth point gives control of Crimea to Russia. This goes against international law, which says no country can take land from another by force.

The remaining parts of the proposal would put the US in charge of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, allow Ukraine to sign new mineral resource deals, and lift all US sanctions currently placed on Russia.

The entire plan will be discussed today in London at a meeting organized by Foreign Secretary David Lammy.