Zelensky's Red Line to Donald Trump's 'Peace Plan'

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is prepared to discuss former U.S. President Donald Trump's proposals to end the war started by Russia, but Kyiv has no plans to give up on its aim of recapturing Crimea and the Donbas region.

Zelensky made the comments in an interview with Fox News, where he weighed in on the former U.S. president's repeated claims that if he won the 2024 presidential election, he could end the war that started on February 24, 2022 "in 24 hours."

The former U.S. president has repeated the claim without giving details on how he would achieve peace beyond saying that there are "things" he would say to Zelensky and Putin that he "won't reveal."

In an interview in his non-native English, Zelensky said: "Let's speak with him and give him this possibility to show what steps [are] of his peace formula."

When he was asked if he were prepared to sit down with the Republican primary frontrunner to discuss ending the war, Zelensky replied: "Yes, I am ready...of course."

Regarding a Trump peace plan, Zelensky said: "He can share it with me. Yes, we can stop this war if we will give Russia Donbas and Crimea, to my mind that our country will not be ready for that such [a] peace plan. That is not [a] peace plan."

Also this week, Zelensky told the British newspaper The Sun he was "ready" to talk with Trump about his peace plan if the former Apprentice host was re-elected, and while Ukrainians are tired of the war, they did not back negotiations for a peace agreement with Russia.

Newsweek has contacted Trump's representatives for comment.

After Trump told a CNN Town Hall in May about his ability to end the war quickly, Zelensky said that the former U.S. president was in the White House when Crimea and part of the Donbas were already occupied.

"I'm not sure if he was deeply involved into this matter, but, nevertheless, he did not solve this issue," Zelensky told a press conference in Rome. "I am not accusing him of anything but we have the facts."

This month, Trump has reportedly declined an invitation by Zelensky to visit Ukraine over concerns that it could "create a conflict of interest" with President Joe Biden.

Zelensky has repeatedly insisted that recapturing the peninsula, which Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in 2014, was among Kyiv's goals for the war that the Russian president started.

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