Trump’s Ukraine peace plan suffers disaster as Zelensky meeting is cancelled amid Putin war threats

Donald Trump’s dreams of peace in Ukraine have suffered a brutal blow as Volodomyr Zelensky today cancelled his meeting with the president’s envoys.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the architects of the Gaza peace deal, concluded five hours of bruising negotiations at the Kremlin on Tuesday.

The pair were expected to fly to Brussels on Wednesday for talks with Zelensky but they flew directly from Moscow to Washington DC last night.

‘The Brussels meeting is called off,’ a Kyiv Post correspondent in Washington wrote on X, citing sources. Zelensky was going back to Ukraine, the correspondent added.

No explanation was provided by either side but the abrupt change of plans likely reflects the lack of progress on ending the war.

Vladimir Putin meanwhile issued a chilling warning to Europe on Tuesday, stating that Russia was ‘ready’ for war on the continent.

He said that any assault would be so ferocious that there would be ‘nobody left to negotiate peace with’ once it was concluded.

Hopes that the Ukraine war might end had been buoyed last month when Trump unveiled a 28-point peace plan for Kyiv and Moscow, modeled on his Gaza deal.

Donald Trump on Thanksgiving, in Palm Beach, Florida, November 27

Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner attend a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, December 2

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a press conference following the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, November 27

However, skeptics warned that the plan’s failure to meet Putin’s maximalist demands – including recognition of annexed territories, demilitarization, and promises to hold elections within 100 days – would prevent a swift Kremlin-backed resolution.

Zelensky also rejects a revised 19-point plan because, although it stripped back concessions to Moscow in the original draft – including dropping its NATO ambitions and relinquishing all of eastern Donbas – it still left sensitive issues unresolved.

The plan requires Ukraine to withdraw from parts of the Donetsk region it already controls, provides vague security guarantees without specifics on enforcement, and imposes a 25 percent reduction on Ukraine’s military.

Amid Putin’s saber-rattling, the Kremlin praised Trump today for trying to reach a peace deal, while admitting that differences remained between the two sides.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘This is a normal process. It was the first time there was a direct exchange of opinions.’

He added that the Russian side had voiced what was ‘unacceptable’ to them.

The Russian and American sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks, but at least one major hurdle to a settlement – the fate of four Ukrainian regions Russia partially seized and occupies and claims as its own – remains.

After the talks, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to Putin, told reporters that ‘so far, a compromise hasn’t been found’ on the issue of territory, without which, he said, the Kremlin sees ‘no resolution to the crisis.’

Ukraine has ruled out giving up territory that Russia has captured.

Asked whether peace was closer or further away after these talks, Ushakov said: ‘Not further, that’s for sure.’

‘But there’s still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow,’ he said.

European leaders worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten their countries, which already have faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread sabotage campaign.

French president Emmanuel Macron welcomes Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenksy at Elysee Palace on December 1

A serviceman of the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attends a military exercise between combat missions, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine December 1

Servicemen of the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attend a military exercise between combat missions, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine December 1

European leaders have worried about being sidelined in the process to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.

‘They don’t take part in the process because they are still obsessed with the idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia,’ Peskov said.

Peskov’s comments came after Putin himself last night said that he is ready for a war with Europe.

Ahead of his meeting with Kushner and Witkoff, he said: ‘We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now’.

He accused Kyiv’s European allies of sabotaging US-led efforts to end the conflict.

‘They don’t have a peace agenda, they’re on the side of the war,’ Putin said.

Putin’s accusations appeared to be his latest attempt to sow dissension between Trump and European countries and set the stage for exempting Moscow from blame for any lack of progress.

He accused Europe of amending peace proposals with ‘demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia’, thus ‘blocking the entire peace process’, only to blame Russia for it.

‘That’s their goal,’ Putin said.

Putin also claimed that Europe had locked itself out of negotiations as it had cut off all contact with Russia following the February 2022 invasion.

Foreign ministers from European NATO countries, meeting in Brussels today, showed little patience with Moscow following Putin’s comments

‘What we see is that Putin has not changed any course. He’s pushing more aggressively on the battlefield,’ Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. ‘It’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t want to have any kind of peace.’

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen struck the same note. ‘So far we haven’t seen any concessions from the side of the aggressor, which is Russia, and I think the best confidence-building measure would be to start with a full ceasefire,’ she told reporters.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Ukraine’s partners will keep sending it military aid to ensure pressure is maintained on Moscow.

‘The peace talks are ongoing. That’s good,’ Rutte said.

‘But at the same time, we have to make sure that whilst they take place and we are not sure when they will end, that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to keep the fight going, to fight back against the Russians,’ he said.

Canada, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands announced that they will spend hundreds of millions of dollars more together to buy U.S. weapons to donate to Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a grim war of attrition on the battlefield and are using drones and missiles for long-range strikes behind the front line.

Many analysts have noted that the slow slog favours Russia’s larger military, especially if disagreements between Europe and the US or among Europeans hampers the delivery of weapons to Ukraine.

Russian drones hit the town of Ternivka in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing two people and injuring three more, the head of the regional military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko, said Wednesday.

Two people were in critical condition, he said, after the attack destroyed one house and damaged six more.

Overall, Russia fired 111 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Wednesday that air defenses destroyed 102 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Falling drone debris sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Tambov region, about 120 miles south of Moscow, local Gov. Yegveniy Pervyshov said.