Ukraine is '90%' ready to agree to US peace proposal, if Russia does not do same, Trump may withdraw from negotiations – media
A senior official of the U.S. presidential administration said the Ukrainian Defense Minister told the U.S. officials that Kyiv is "90%" on board with the peace framework of President Donald Trump, presented this week in Paris by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and two special envoys, the New York Post said on Saturday, without naming the official's name or position.
"This coming week in London, we want to make a determination for a full and comprehensive cease-fire. The intent then is to have [discussions] with the Russians and then say, 'OK, this is your best and final offer,' to find out where both sides are at. And once we get that, then the next steps will be determined," the source said.
The source said the question now is whether Russia, which has previously blocked Trump's attempts to reach a full ceasefire and peace agreement, will agree to this offer.
The officials said Trump is ready to walk away from the negotiating table if he does not get Moscow's agreement, placing responsibility for the conflict on America's European allies.
To persuade Russia to come to the negotiating table, Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff could offer Moscow a "carrot" of reduced sanctions and possibly unfreezing seized assets, the senior official said. "The carrot, for the Russians, is a look at, 'How do we reduce the sanctions that are currently on the Russians?' 'The other is, 'How do you handle the frozen Russian assets — that $300 billion that sits in Brussels, what happens with those, as well?" The source said.
But experts say such actions would contradict Trump's previous threats to increase financial pressure on Russia, which he has so far failed to do.
In particular, Alex Plitsas of the Atlantic Council said the U.S. president "has been very tough on the Ukrainians, cutting off intelligence support and military aid when he didn't feel that he was getting the immediate 'yes' that he wanted from the Ukrainians to agree to a cease-fire."
"The Russians have continued to violate any cease-fire that they have ever signed up for, refused to come to an agreement on the cease-fire on reasonable terms, continue to launch ballistic missile attacks and drone attacks and that are killing Ukrainian civilians. All of that is basically thumbing their nose at President Trump and looking to embarrass him on the international stage... A failure to be able to achieve the goal that he set out — of peace from Day One — and abandoning Ukraine to Russian aggression would be characterized as both a US and NATO loss across the board," Plitsas said.
He said the White House should instead take tougher action against Vladimir Putin, who "has not been held accountable for his actions in a meaningful way for the last 25 years".