Addressing the United States Congress on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump announced that his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had written to him, indicating he was ready for peace negotiations with Russia to end their war.
In a post on social media, Zelenskyy concurred with Trump and laid out the contours of a peace plan. This came days after a bust-up between the two leaders in the Oval Office, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Zelenskyy of being a warmonger unwilling to work towards a ceasefire with Russia, and claimed that he was not grateful enough for all the assistance that the US has provided to Ukraine during the war.
So what is the latest exchange between Trump and Zelenskyy about? What is Ukraine’s new peace plan? Where does Europe stand on it – and could it work?
What have Trump and Zelenskyy said?
Trump said on Tuesday that he received a letter from Zelenskyy in which the Ukrainian president expressed readiness to approach the negotiating table for peace.
“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians,” Trump said in an address to Congress, referencing Zelenskyy’s letter.
Trump added that he had also heard from Russia and “received strong signals” that it was ready for peace.
“It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides,” Trump said. He did not specify how he plans to end the war that has been grinding on since February 2022.
Also on Tuesday, Zelenskyy wrote an X post echoing what he wrote in his letter to Trump. “I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace,” he started his post.
“Zelenskyy has attempted to speak the language of Trump-world by grovelling at the court of the king, instead of insisting on the reality-based engagement which had enraged Trump and Vance during the meeting,” Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at the London-based Chatham House think tank, told Al Jazeera.
What is Zelenskyy’s new peace plan?
In his X post, Zelenskyy briefly described his peace proposal.
He wrote that “the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky – ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure – and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same”.
He added that Ukraine would “want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal”.
Zelenskyy’s recent move “is specific and a great way to see if Russia seriously wants a negotiated settlement that may last and allow Ukraine to exist as an independent state”, Mikhail Alexseev, a professor of political science at San Diego State University, told Al Jazeera.
I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace.
None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 4, 2025
Where does Europe stand on this proposal?
Before the Ukraine security summit in London, hosted on March 2 by United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron told Le Figaro newspaper about a step-by-step peace proposal that has similarities to what Zelenskyy has now pitched.
Macron said the UK and France wanted to propose a ceasefire pausing sea and air attacks, as well as attacks on energy infrastructure for a month.
Starmer and Macron, alongside other European leaders, have also expressed a willingness to send troops to Ukraine as peacekeeping forces if a peace deal is reached with Russia.
However, Russia has opposed European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine. “Russia’s overall war aims will not have changed,” Giles said. “So any force in Ukraine intended to preserve peace is an obstacle to them, and we can expect Russia to oppose it with all of the dire threats that it can muster.”
So far, Trump and his team appear to be supportive of a US peacekeeping operation in Ukraine once a deal with Russia is struck. But if Russia remains firmly opposed to it, “based on past performance, we can expect the Trump administration to back Moscow‘s demands”, Giles said.
What’s the backdrop of the new proposal?
A day before Zelenskyy’s letter, Trump announced a pause on Washington’s military assistance to Kyiv, multiple media outlets reported, quoting unnamed US officials.
This was after mounting tensions between the two leaders, which came to a head on February 28 in the Oval Office in the White House. Zelenskyy met Trump, US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Trump and Vance repeatedly cut Zelenskyy off, tearing into the Ukrainian leader for not being thankful enough to the US for its military assistance to Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy set about trying to change that narrative.
“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence,” the Ukrainian leader wrote in his six-paragraph X post, which was peppered with gratitude to Washington. “We remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins. We are grateful for this.”
Zelenskyy also wrote that his White House meeting “did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right.”
In his post, Zelenskyy did not mention the pause on US military aid to Ukraine.
A month into his new term, Trump has shifted US policy towards the Ukraine war and has become more open to negotiating with Moscow. Last month, officials from the US and Russia met for peace negotiations in Saudi Arabia. This left Ukraine and Europe displeased, as they were not invited to the talks.
What about the rare minerals deal?
Based on what the two leaders are saying, a rare earth minerals deal that Zelenskyy was expected to sign during his Friday visit to Washington, DC – but that got stalled after the Ukrainian leader left early following the clash with Trump – might now be back on track.
The deal will allow Washington to invest in Kyiv’s mineral resources, including rare earth minerals. Trump has pushed for this, and he told reporters last month that he wanted “equalisation” for the aid the US has sent to Ukraine.
Trump said during his address to Congress that Ukraine is ready to sign the minerals deal.
In his X post, Zelenskyy wrote: “Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format. We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively.”
While making clear that the US will not send any peacekeepers to Ukraine as part of a ceasefire with Russia, Trump and his administration have argued that the minerals deal would serve as a security guarantee for Kyiv. The argument: Once Russia knows that the US is heavily invested economically in Ukraine, it would know that attacking its neighbour would draw strong US retribution.
Will Russia accept this peace deal?
With specifics of the peace deal still uncertain, it might be too early to tell, experts say.
“Russia has the luxury of sitting back and waiting to see if Europe can get its act together or not since there is nothing concrete yet,” Giles said, adding this puts Moscow in a “very comfortable position”.
But some experts believe that Zelenskyy’s proposal could work against Russia.
“I don’t think it’s a good deal for Russia. Russia has more long-range capabilities than Ukraine and is striking critical infrastructure more than Ukraine. The moratorium would disadvantage Russia,” Marina Miron, a post-doctoral researcher at the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera. “I don’t think Russia would be keen on signing it. I don’t think Russia has trust for Europeans.”
Alexseev, the San Diego State University professor, agreed.
“I don’t see them [Russia] accepting any peace proposal now short of Ukraine’s surrender and abrogating its sovereignty,” he said. “The US will need to seriously threaten Russians to change that and accept Ukraine’s right to sovereignty and talk some compromise, but Washington is doing the opposite, showing readiness to accommodate key Russian demands.”
Will the US accept this peace deal?
Giles added it is also unclear “what the US will accept, because the incentives for Trump are very different from the incentives for Ukraine and Europe”. He explained that this depends on the extent to which Trump can be motivated by the minerals deal.
“We see logical gaps in so many of the proposals that we have heard today – the suggestion from Keir Starmer that nothing is feasible without US backing runs into the quicksand if the US has stated so clearly that it does not wish to give this backing.”
For Alexseev, “the big question is whether Trump restarts shipment of military aid and sharing intelligence with Ukraine if [the] US and Ukraine sign the minerals deal.”
Yet, he said, “any serious negotiated solution” would need Trump to “not only to resume this aid but to increase it”.
Miron said even if the US signs the minerals deal, it is unclear whether Zelenskyy will be signing it on Ukraine’s behalf, or someone from the Ukrainian parliament.
“The US wants to talk to Ukraine, not specifically Zelenskyy,” she said. Trump has recently slammed Zelenskyy for not holding elections since the beginning of the war. On February 19, he deemed the Ukrainian leader “a dictator without elections” in a Truth Social post. Miron said after a deal is signed, the White House might push for elections in Ukraine.
If that is the US plan, a parliamentarian signing the minerals agreement on Ukraine’s behalf instead of Zelenskyy might make more sense, so that Kyiv is not able to use legal loopholes to dismiss the deal in the future, Miron said, at a time when trust between the US and Ukraine is low.
