‘Thursday is appropriate’: Trump gives Ukraine deadline to accept US peace plan

US President Donald Trump indicated Friday that he had set a deadline of November 27 for Ukraine to accept his administration’s plan aimed at ending its war with Russia.

“I’ve had a lot of deadlines, but if things are working well, you tend to extend the deadlines. But Thursday is, we think, an appropriate time,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Radio when asked if he had given Ukraine until next Thursday to agree to a 28-point US plan to halt the conflict.

Under the plan, Ukraine would give up a swathe of eastern territory to Russia and slash the size of its army, according to a draft obtained by AFP.

Kyiv would also pledge never to join NATO, and would not get the Western peacekeepers they have called for, although European warplanes would be stationed in Poland to protect Ukraine.

Trump stated that if the fighting kept going on, the Ukrainians would still end up losing the territories they would have to cede to Russia if the plan were validated.

“Say what you want, they were very brave,” he said about Ukrainian forces fighting the Russians.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “is not looking for more war,” the Republican leader responded when asked about the possibility of Russia attacking other countries in Europe after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Trump also stated that Putin was “taking punishment” for the conflict going on for nearly four years now when, the US president added, it “was supposed to be a one-day war.”

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back on the American plan, saying he would not “betray” his country over the 28-point document that is being seen in Kyiv as very favorable to the Kremlin.

The White House, however, has issued assurances that it has been discussing the plan equally with Kyiv and Moscow.