Talks to end the war in Ukraine are now reportedly stuck, leaving President Trump increasingly irritated and accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for failing to accept a U.S. peace plan.
A meeting Wednesday in London that was hailed as a make-or-break moment for discussions collapsed after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff abruptly canceled plans to attend.
That followed Zelensky’s resistance against a U.S. proposal for a peace deal—that Washington officially accept Russian sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has occupied since 2014.
Zelensky said in a social-media message late Wednesday that Ukraine would act in accordance with its constitution, and voiced hope for understanding and support from allies.
Nearly a hundred days into Trump’s second term, a peace accord has been elusive. The U.S. gave a framework to Ukraine and European negotiators last week in Paris, warning that the U.S. may walk away if an agreement weren’t struck within days.
But Ukraine sees the planned pact as beneficial to Russia, leading to growing irritation in the Trump administration.
Ukrainian officials said they are scared that Trump, who has said he doesn’t like Zelensky, would blame Kyiv for a collapse in talks and refuse to offer more military aid.
They have reminded their U.S. counterparts that Ukraine committed to stop fighting for 30 days while Russia hadn’t.
The conclusion that all sides remain far apart on crucial issues stands in contrast to Trump’s promise that he could negotiate a pact within 24 hours.
He has vented to aides that the negotiations were harder to close than he thought, U.S. officials say, aiming much of his frustration at Zelensky for not immediately agreeing to the most recent U.S. offering.
The peace framework unveiled last week would allow Russia to keep most of the territory it conquered over the last decade of fighting with Ukraine in return for freezing the conflict along existing lines.
The U.S. would formally acknowledge Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and Ukraine would have to give up on hopes to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
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