The U.S. is now sending “signals” that everything could be off the table if Kyiv does not quickly sign a proposal, which was drawn up by special envoy Witkoff.
The White House is pressuring Ukraine to sign on to its new peace proposal by Thanksgiving or lose U.S. support to the country, according to two officials familiar with the talks, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic discussions.
U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll presented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday with a version of the 28-point plan President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff recently drafted with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
That plan, which has been leaked in the press and confirmed by several officials, included several red lines for Ukraine, including a massive reduction of its army size and ceding territory to Russia that it has not yet conquered militarily.
Although Trump has drawn down direct aid to Ukraine, the U.S. has brokered deals for Ukraine to receive U.S. weapons through European partners and continues to share intelligence that is crucial to Ukraine’s survival on the battlefield.
The U.S. is now sending “signals” that everything could be off the table if Kyiv does not quickly sign a proposal, the officials said, even as Driscoll took a lighter tone in Thursday’s meeting.
Zelensky requested changes to the document on Thursday and Driscoll’s team agreed some changes could be made, one of the officials said, although Kyiv remains unclear on which points will be adjustable.
The document would initially be signed by Zelensky and Trump before being presented to the Russians.
The U.S. appears to have divided the teams between Witkoff and Driscoll to “play good cop and bad cop — one presses, the other tries to say: let’s work together to change [the plan],” one of the officials said.
Following the Thursday meeting in Kyiv, U.S. officials including Julie Davis, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, said the timeline for signing is “aggressive.”
Army spokesman Col. Dave Butler declined to discuss details of the negotiations.
The plan contains elements long pushed for by Moscow, including a full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the heavily fortified Donetsk region in the east of Ukraine, granting Russia full control of territory it has not been able to conquer in nearly four years of war. Russia would receive “de facto recognition” of its control of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as of the areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia it has illegally seized, with the conflict in these regions frozen on the current front line.
Ukraine would be forced to enshrine in its constitution that it will not seek to join NATO Western alliance, while agreeing to significantly reduce the size of its armed forces from the 800,000-850,000 military personnel to 600,000.





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