By Marc Santora
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Tuesday offered a course of action that he said could end the war, while trying to assure the Trump administration that his government was dedicated to peace.
“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” Zelenskyy wrote on the social platform X. “It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right.”
He was referring to an explosive meeting at the White House last week in which President Donald Trump berated Zelenskyy and called him ungrateful. Trump followed up on Monday by announcing that he was pausing all U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader said he was ready to release Russian prisoners of war, stop long-range drone and missile strikes aimed at Russian targets, and declare a truce at sea immediately — moves that he said would help establish a pathway to peace.
Only, however, “if Russia will do the same,” he added.
Zelenskyy’s proposal seemed clearly designed to shift the burden for ending the war onto Russia, which launched its invasion three years ago. The White House has claimed that the Ukrainian leader is the main obstacle to peace.
In his post, Zelenskyy offered effusive praise for U.S. support, noting specifically “the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins.”
“We are grateful for this,” he wrote. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” he added. “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”
There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin to Zelenskyy’s proposal. Despite the ferocity of the fighting, President Vladimir Putin of Russia has shown a willingness to do side deals with Ukraine. The two countries have conducted numerous prisoner-of-war exchanges, and Russia and Ukraine had been set to participate in talks in Qatar last August about halting strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure. Moscow pulled out of the meeting after Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
In recent weeks, however, Putin has offered no hint of being willing to de-escalate the war before winning major concessions from the West and Ukraine — like ruling out Ukrainian NATO membership, reducing the alliance’s footprint in Europe, limiting the size of Ukraine’s military, and giving Russia influence over Ukraine’s domestic politics.
“There is no evidence that Russia would be prepared to accept a deal, and what that would be,” said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general of the Royal United Services Institute, a research group in London. He said the decision by the United States to pause military aid would only encourage Putin to ask for more — including Ukrainian demilitarization and neutrality.
Zelenskyy sought to strike a careful balance in his statement. Aware of Trump’s stated desire to get a quick deal, he said Ukraine was “ready to work fast to end the war.”
At the same time, he suggested a staged process, similar to an idea raised by the French government, that could start immediately.
“We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same,” he wrote. “Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal.”
His statement came as leaders in Ukraine assessed the political and military impact of the Trump administration’s decision to suspend aid, with military officials weighing how long Ukraine’s own stockpiles would last before the situation led to critical gaps on the front.
An emergency meeting in the Ukrainian parliament was convened Tuesday to assess the impact of the latest pressure from the Trump administration while soldiers in the trenches woke up to the news that an already grueling war could become even more challenging, and brutal.
Zelenskyy did not comment directly on the aid suspension but he convened senior civilian and military leaders to discuss “special issues concerning our national resilience.”
European leaders — who will convene in Brussels on Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine and the urgent need for Europe to build up its own military capabilities — were quick to rush to Ukraine’s defense Tuesday morning.
Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, said: “This is Europe’s moment and we must live up to it.”
Appearing in Brussels, she proposed a new program that would make loans valued at 150 billion euros ($158 billion) to member states to fund defense investment.
A former official in the Biden administration said Ukraine had enough key munitions to last into the summer because of the surge in deliveries the U.S. made before President Joe Biden left office — shipments that included artillery rounds, rockets and armored vehicles to Ukraine. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private arrangements.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said the country had weathered suspensions of U.S. military aid in the past and that Ukraine was engaging in a comprehensive audit of it stockpiles, “examining what we have, what can be produced through partnerships, and what can be replaced.”
Despite the increasing tension with the Trump administration, Ukraine did not give up hope that the relationship between Ukraine and the U.S. could be salvaged.
The Ukrainian parliament issued a statement directed at Trump, offering effusive praise and gratitude while imploring his administration to not abandon their country as it fights for its survival as an independent nation.
“We are convinced that the security and stable development of our nation are ensured by the unwavering support of the United States and reflect the values that have been the foundation of America’s historic success, inspiring millions of Ukrainians,” the lawmakers wrote.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said his government would do everything to maintain diplomatic ties with Washington and was prepared to sign an agreement granting the U.S. extraordinary access to Ukraine’s natural resources.
“This agreement has been approved by the government of Ukraine,” he said at a news conference. “We are ready to begin this cooperation at any moment.”
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