>> Continued From the Previous Page <<
The plan limits Ukraine’s military size to 800,000 personnel and eliminates the amnesty guarantees that Zelensky’s team had demanded early in negotiations. Those amnesty protections would have shielded Russian commanders from consequences, something Trump refused to entertain. The message was simple. Accept the new terms or risk seeing American weapons and intelligence support shut off immediately.
Trump’s Team Negotiates On Two Continents
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was deployed to Abu Dhabi to work face to face with Russian representatives. This came only hours after U.S. and Ukrainian officials met in Geneva to nail down the broad agreement.
Ukraine’s national security chief Rustem Umerov publicly announced progress, writing that delegations “reached a common understanding on the core terms” and that Zelensky is preparing to travel to Washington to finalize the deal with Trump.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed that message, telling reporters that the U.S. made “tremendous progress” and that the remaining sticking points were “a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details.”
Putin Signals Resistance Even Though The Deal Favors Moscow
Critics of Trump insist he is handing Putin a victory. But in an unexpected twist, the Kremlin is now suggesting it may reject the updated terms despite receiving almost everything it demanded during the Alaska summit months earlier.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov complained that the revisions “erased key understandings” from the August meeting, warning that “the situation will be fundamentally different.”
Trump’s original 28 point Alaska proposal blocked Ukraine from joining NATO, capped their military at 600,000 troops, gave Russia a demilitarized zone across the rest of Donbas and forced elections within 100 days. After intense pushback from Europe, several of those provisions were watered down.
The newest draft increases the cap to 800,000 troops during peacetime and begins territorial talks from the current Line of Contact rather than pre awarding land to Russia.
European leaders were reportedly taken aback by Trump’s blunt ultimatum last week. According to sources, Kyiv was told to sign the agreement by Thursday or watch U.S. military support end immediately. That pressure apparently forced Zelensky’s hand.
Fighting Intensifies As Negotiators Race To Finalize Terms
The battlefield shows no sign of slowing down while diplomats argue over maps and numbers. Russian strikes killed several civilians including an elderly woman and destroyed power plants supplying heat to Kyiv as winter approaches. Moscow also claimed to have shot down 249 Ukrainian drones in one night. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces struck a major Russian aviation facility, creating what witnesses described as “a glow like after a nuclear explosion.”
The death toll of the conflict has climbed to an estimated 300,000 since early 2022. Trump argues it is long past time for someone to stop the carnage.
Zelensky is now preparing to fly to Washington because, for the first time, he cannot ignore the reality that Trump controls the military lifeline that keeps Ukraine in the fight.
With Trump closing in on a peace agreement that eluded world leaders for nearly three years, the world is watching to see whether Putin accepts the deal or gambles on dragging the war through another winter.
