Zelensky Attempts to Rewrite Trump’s Peace Plan Rather Than Reject It
He takes a constructive approach to proposal without losing credibility with his people
The Gaze reports on it according to WSJ.
With the help of his European allies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has carefully prepared a response to US President Donald Trump's peace plan, which essentially boils down to: ‘Yes, but...’, writes the WSJ.
Zelensky is ready to hold elections, but this requires a ceasefire. He says that Russia can retain a certain role in Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which has been seized by Russian troops, but control over it must remain with Ukraine and the United States. He acknowledges that the size of the Ukrainian armed forces may be limited, but only to its current level.
This approach has allowed Zelensky to align himself with Trump's vision of peace without losing political credibility in his own country.
‘We are not betraying our country, we are not giving up our independence, which is important, but we are being constructive,’ Zelensky told reporters.
This week, Zelensky's negotiating position was bolstered by Ukraine's successful operation in the city of Kupiansk, which Russia claimed to have captured last month.
‘All our strong positions inside the country are turning into strong positions in the negotiations to end the war,’ Zelensky said on Friday, 12 December, during a visit to the city.
This weekend gives Zelensky the opportunity to personally present his position to Washington during a meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Berlin.
How the Ukrainian leader responds to Trump's demand for a quick peace deal will be a turning point in Kyiv's attempts to end the war without compromising its sovereignty. The challenge for Zelensky is that the initial 28-point plan proposed by the US at the end of November was developed with Russia's participation.
The document contained ‘traps’ for Zelensky, such as prohibiting Ukraine from joining NATO, requiring elections to be held within 100 days, and demanding that Ukraine relinquish some Ukrainian territories that the Russians had not captured.
Last week, during talks with European leaders, Zelensky rewrote the plan to make it acceptable to Ukraine, thus not rejecting the plan so as not to alienate Trump.
Addressing one of the most difficult issues, control over the unoccupied territories of Donetsk Oblast, Zelensky emphasised the need for monitoring and fairness in the US-led search for ways to end the war.
The US-backed proposal envisages transforming this territory into a ‘free economic zone’ or ‘demilitarised zone’ from which Ukraine would withdraw its troops and to which the Russian military would have no access.
Instead of completely rejecting this proposal, Zelensky asked for more detailed information. For example, if Ukraine withdraws its forces, what will prevent Russian troops from advancing? Or what will prevent Moscow from infiltrating this zone under the guise of ‘civilians’ in order to control it?
Yuri Ushakov, an adviser to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, said on Friday that Russian police and the Kremlin's national guard could likely be deployed in these territories. Echoing Putin's previous threats, he said Moscow would gain control of the territory through negotiations or force.
Zelensky has used his ‘yes, but...’ negotiation tactic in the past. When the Trump administration pressured Kyiv to sign an agreement giving the United States access to Ukraine's mineral resources, Kyiv secured more favourable terms by refusing to sign the agreement immediately.
‘We respect you very much, but we cannot simply sign the agreement because we have restrictions,’ became a familiar refrain of Ukrainian negotiators, noted Ukrainian political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko.
He added that Russia's reaction to the new versions of the peace plan is more harsh. The Kremlin, relying on slow gains on the battlefield, is trying to stick to its basic demands under any circumstances.
Putin has stated that some parts of the US proposal are unacceptable and that any peace agreement must take into account what he calls the ‘root causes’ of the war, by which Moscow means Kyiv's pro-Western course and NATO's expansion to the East.
Russia has focused on the absence of elections in Ukraine since Zelensky came to power in 2019 in order to dismiss him as an illegitimate leader with whom it cannot negotiate. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, martial law has been in effect, preventing elections from being held.
But Zelensky, who was offered to hold elections as part of a peace plan, has chosen a pragmatic path. This week, he said he was ready to hold a vote, but only if parliament proposed an appropriate legal path and partners, primarily the US, ensured a ceasefire during the elections. ‘We in Ukraine believe that America should discuss this issue with the Russian side,’ Zelensky told a group of European allies on Thursday.
Before that, he said that the US and Ukraine believe that Russia will not agree to a ceasefire until a peace agreement is reached.
The vagueness of the proposal on how the US plans to ‘demilitarise’ Europe's largest nuclear power plant and create a consortium for joint management of the facility also gave Zelensky an opportunity to review the terms.
Ukraine is opposed to transferring the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant to Russian control, Zelensky said. But if the agreement provides for US participation in management, it will be necessary to work out the details of joint work at the facility, he added.
Fesenko says that Zelensky's method of putting pressure on partners on specific issues, particularly regarding the mechanisms for implementing the most difficult points, has allowed him to continue constructive negotiations without compromising on key issues. ‘We just need to psychologically withstand this pressure, take a short pause and say that we are ready for discussion. And then sit down and discuss each specific issue,’ Fesenko said.
As the Gaze reported earlier Why Donald Trump is Interested in a Quick, Not Quality, Completion of the War in Ukraine.