"To reach a peace agreement, Ukraine must give up some of its territory, otherwise it will lose it within a few months", said US President Donald Trump.
He answered questions from reporters on board his plane on the way to Florida, where he is expected to spend the Thanksgiving weekend.
The US president admitted that Russia could gain control over the territories that Ukraine will have to cede in the next few months.
„If you look at it, things are only moving in one direction.“
„Moscow's big concession is the cessation of hostilities and the relinquishment of control over larger territories with the cessation of the offensive. The very cessation of hostilities and offensive operations by Russia can be seen as a concession to resolving the crisis in Ukraine. They are discussing mutual exchanges of territory and trying to demarcate territory,“ he said, explaining that it is impossible to draw a border through “the middle of a house or the middle of a highway“. “It is a complex process and it does not happen quickly,“ Trump noted.
According to him, the US European allies will play an active role in ensuring the security of Ukraine.
When asked about a new deadline, Trump replied: “You know what my deadline is? When this is all over.“
“I think we are very close to an agreement. We will find out. "I thought it would be done sooner," the politician said during a White House ceremony before Thanksgiving, expressing confidence in the success of peace initiatives.
He wrote on his social media account Truth Social that his team had made tremendous progress in the past week.
On the peace plan, he said, "there are only a few points where there is disagreement."
"I hope to meet with President Zelensky and President Putin soon, but only when the agreement to end this war is final or in its final stages," Trump said.
"This war could go on for years. Russia has a lot more people, a lot more soldiers. I think if Ukraine can reach an agreement, that's good. Frankly, I think it's good for both sides. "Ukraine is a much smaller group of people," Trump said.
On November 25, ABC News reported that the United States and Ukraine had agreed on the terms of a possible peace plan. According to journalists, the document has been reduced to 19 points. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also announced that the plan had been agreed upon by the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations, emphasizing that "important steps forward have been made."
The Trump administration is confident that Putin will reject the draft peace plan revised in Geneva.
“Some Trump administration officials believe that changes to the peace agreement agreed upon after meetings between U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators in Geneva could lead to Russian President Vladimir Putin rejecting it outright,” The New York Times reported.