Trump says Zelenskyy ‘isn’t ready’ to accept US peace deal

Donald Trump has said Volodymyr Zelenskyy “isn’t ready” to sign off on a US-authored peace proposal aimed at ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, at the end of three days of talks between Washington and Kyiv in Florida.“I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he hasn’t,” Trump claimed as he spoke with reporters on Sunday night.Days of negotiations between US and Ukrainian officials ended Saturday without an apparent breakthrough, with Zelenskyy calling the discussions “constructive, although not easy.”His comments come as Zelenskyy was set to meet with UK prime minister Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany in London on Monday, with discussions set to focus on the continuing talks between the US and Ukraine.Starmer has repeatedly stressed that Ukraine must determine its own future, and said a European peacekeeping force would play a “vital role” in guaranteeing the country’s security.Off the back of the Trump-backed Gaza ceasefire, the US has been working to push through a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. US officials claim they are in the final stage of reaching an agreement, but there is little sign that either Ukraine or Russia is willing to sign the framework deal drawn up by Trump’s negotiating team.In his comments on Sunday, Trump said “Russia is, I believe, fine with [the deal], but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy’s fine with it. His people love it. But he isn’t ready.”Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t publicly expressed approval for the White House plan and last week said that aspects of Trump’s proposal were unworkable. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Putin at the Kremlin last week but failed to achieve an obvious break through.Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint news conference with the Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin on 2 December. Photograph: Peter Morrison/APThe US plan has been through several drafts since it first emerged in November, with criticism it was too soft on Russia. Despite ongoing efforts from Trump and his team to push through a deal, progress in the peace talks has been slow, with disputes over security guarantees for Kyiv and the status of Russian-occupied territory still unresolved.“The American representatives know the basic Ukrainian positions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Sunday.Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Zelenskyy since reentering the White House, and has repeatedly urged the Ukrainians to cede land to Russia to bring an end to a conflict he says has cost far too many lives.Zelenskyy said on Saturday he had a “substantive phone call” with the American officials engaged in the talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He said he had been given an update over the phone by US and Ukrainian officials at the talks.“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.Trump’s criticism of Zelenskyy came as Russia on Sunday welcomed the Trump administration’s new national security strategy. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the updated strategic document, which spells out the administration’s core foreign policy interests, was largely in line with Moscow’s vision.The document released Friday by the White House said the US wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah. The document was also highly critical of European countries, and said that the continent was at risk of “civilisational erasure”.Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said at a defence forum on Saturday that the administration’s efforts to end the war were in “the last 10 metres”. He said there were two outstanding issues: territory and the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.Kellogg is seen as among the US officials most sympathetic to Kyiv’s position, but is due to leave his role in January and was present at the Florida talks. Many others in Trump’s orbit, including Witkoff, have been much more open to adopting Russian positions. Trump’s son, Donald Jr, said at a forum in Doha on Sunday that Zelenskyy was deliberately continuing the conflict for fear of losing power if it ended. He said the US would not be “the idiot with the chequebook” any longer.With the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse