Russia and Putin · Second term · № 121
Gave Ukraine until Thanksgiving to accept a 28-point plan drafted with Russian input: 'He'll have to like it'
“Well, he'll have to like it. And if he doesn't like it, then, you know, they should just keep fighting, I guess.”
- Said
- , Oval Office, exchange with reporters
- Subject
- 28-point peace plan
- Type
- Ukraine
- Topic
- Ukraine & Russia
- Era
- Second term
What happened
The 28-point plan presented to Kyiv in November 2025 was worked out by envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Miami in late October, without Ukrainian or European participation, according to Bloomberg reporting carried by Fortune. Its terms recognized Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk as de facto Russian, required Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the part of Donetsk they held, froze Kherson and Zaporizhzhia along the line of contact, capped Ukraine's army at 600,000, wrote a NATO bar into Ukraine's constitution, invited Russia back into the G8, lifted sanctions in stages, granted a 'full amnesty' for wartime actions and required Ukrainian elections within 100 days. Trump said Thanksgiving, November 27, was an 'appropriate' deadline for Zelensky to sign and that Ukraine could not stop Russia from taking the Donbas. Zelensky said Ukraine faced a choice between 'losing its dignity' and 'losing a key partner.' European leaders said the line of contact should be the starting point and the EU's Kaja Kallas warned a deal rewarding invasion would set a 'very dangerous' precedent. After U.S.-Ukraine talks in Geneva on November 23, the plan was revised and the deadline dropped; Trump said on November 25 he had no deadline.
Sources
- Remarks During a Meeting With Mayor-Elect Zohran K. Mamdani of New York City and an Exchange With Reporters
- Zelenskyy says Ukraine has impossible choice as Trump pushes plan to end war
- Trump's 28-point Ukraine plan in full: What it means, could it work?
- Secret U.S.-Russia talks led to plan that blindsided Ukraine
- Joint Statement by the United States and Ukraine on Peace Talks in Geneva, Switzerland