US Vice President J.D. Vance called on Ukraine today to accept a US peace proposal that includes long-standing Russian demands, including a "freezing" of territorial lines in the three-year war, acceptance of Russia's annexation of Crimea and a ban on Ukraine becoming part of NATO, the New York Times reports.
The newspaper said it was the first time a US official had publicly laid out the ceasefire agreement in such stark terms, and that the comments appeared designed to increase pressure on Ukraine, which has long refused to accept Russian claims to parts of its country, particularly Crimea.
Vance, speaking during a trip to India, said the US would "walk away" from the peace process if Ukraine and Russia refused to accept US conditions.
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The New York Times reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was apparently targeted.
"We have made a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it is time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process. The only way to truly stop the killing is for the militaries to lay down their weapons, to freeze this thing, and to get on with the job of creating a better Russia and a better Ukraine," Vance told reporters.
The vice president's comments came just hours after Zelensky said his country would never accept Russia's 2014 occupation of Crimea as legal, adding that it would violate Ukraine's constitution.
He also said that Ukraine cannot accept any ban on becoming part of NATO.
"There is nothing to talk about. This violates our Constitution. This is our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine," Zelensky said at a press conference.
Bloomberg reported last week that the US is ready to recognize Russian control over Crimea as part of a broader peace agreement between Moscow and Kiev.
CNN also reported last week, citing well-informed officials, that the administration of US President Donald Trump is ready to recognize Russian control over Crimea as part of a proposal to end the war in Ukraine.
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Yulia Sviridenko, Ukraine's economy minister, pledged today that her country "will never recognize the occupation of Crimea."
Writing on the social network X, she said that "Ukraine is ready to negotiate - but not to surrender."
"There will be no agreement that gives Russia the stronger footing it needs to regroup and return with greater violence," Sviridenko wrote.
Vance's threat to abandon peace talks was similar to comments last week by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump.
Rubio, as reported by Reuters on April 18, said that United States President Donald Trump will abandon attempts to mediate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine within days unless there are clear signs that an agreement can be reached.
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Following Rubio's statement, Trump said that negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were "reaching a climax" and insisted that neither side had "played him" in his efforts to end the war, the British newspaper The Guardian reported on April 19.
"Now, if for some reason one of the two sides makes it difficult, we'll just say you're foolish. You're foolish, terrible people. And we'll just walk away. But hopefully we won't have to do that," Trump said at the time.
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Vance told reporters in India today that, under the US proposal, "territorial lines would be frozen at some level close to today."
"The current lines, or somewhere close to them, is where you will eventually, I think, draw new lines in the conflict. Now, of course, that means both the Ukrainians and the Russians will have to give up some of the territory they currently hold," he added.
The US Vice President did not say which territories Russia would have to give up.
A peace plan that would leave Russian forces deep in eastern Ukraine would be welcome news in Moscow, where President Vladimir Putin has said for nearly a year that he would accept a ceasefire in which Ukraine withdraws troops from four regions Moscow claims as its own and abandons its aspirations to join NATO.
Russia currently occupies 18,7 percent of Ukraine, according to DeepState, an online research group affiliated with the Ukrainian military.
A freeze would essentially force Ukraine to effectively hand over vast swaths of land to Russia and would violate the principles of self-determination and borders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed Vance's statements.
"The US is continuing its mediation efforts and we certainly welcome those efforts. Our interactions are ongoing, but, to be sure, there are many nuances around the peace agreement that need to be discussed," Peskov said, according to the New York Times.
The media outlet says the Trump administration's aggressive push to reach an agreement is a blow to European leaders, who have been trying to support Ukraine in recent weeks by mediating in peace talks.
The first session was held last Sunday in Paris, and the second was scheduled to begin Wednesday in London before Rubio announced Tuesday night that he would no longer attend.
His decision to withdraw prompted British Foreign Secretary David Lammy to decide that he too would not attend – although Lammy met separately with the Ukrainian foreign minister in London.
Lower-level diplomats from the UK, France, Germany, Ukraine and the US certainly gathered for technical talks.
But the US absence raised fears that Ukraine and Europe were being marginalised as the Trump administration appeared to be working primarily with Russia to formulate a ceasefire plan, according to the New York Times.
Those still meeting are expected to discuss the details of the Trump administration's proposed plan, which calls on Ukraine to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea - a move that much of the international community has deemed illegal - and accept that its NATO aspirations will not be met.
But expectations that the talks could lead to progress toward a ceasefire have plummeted after today's events, which have served to push European diplomats to the margins of the US-Russia talks, according to the New York Times.
Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, arrived in London this morning for talks with his country's defense and foreign ministers.
"Despite everything, we continue to work for peace," he wrote on the social network X.
Before his comments on Tuesday, Zelensky had expressed his opposition to the US demands in a conversation with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, according to an official familiar with the conversation.
Zelenskiy expressed his views on Crimea and NATO, the official said, and Rutte later called Trump and relayed Zelenskiy's response to him.
A British official said the decision to scale back the meeting was made during talks between Rubio and Lemmy, with the two concluding that further technical discussions were necessary before the foreign ministers met again.
But Rubio's decision to cancel participation apparently caught the British off guard, according to another official who said Lemmy fully expected the secretary of state to be in London today.
Instead of participating in a wider meeting, Lemmy met one-on-one with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibih, while British Defense Secretary John Healy met with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov, according to a British official.
Lemmy also stopped by for a luncheon that included senior national security advisers from Britain, France, and Germany, as well as the Ukrainian delegation and General Kellogg.
Peskov told Russian news agencies on Wednesday that the London meeting had collapsed due to an apparent lack of progress in the negotiations beforehand.
"As far as we understand, they were unable to come to an agreement on some issues, which is why that meeting did not take place," he said.
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