What Ukrainians Think About Trump’s Peace Plan WILL ZELENS KY ACCEPT THE TRUMP PEACE DEAL—EVEN WHILE EMBROILED IN A CORRUPTION SCANDAL? (ALLISON ROBBERT/ THE WAS HINGTON P OST VIA GET T Y IMAGE S) Volodymyr Zelensky has been hurt by a corruption scandal. But I spoke to Ukrainians who have rallied around his defiance toward the U.S.-Russia proposal. By Aidan G. Stretch 11.24.25 —International International Wars, global trade, and the world’s shifting alliances. FOLLOW TOPIC K YIV—When Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll presented the White House’s 28-point proposal to end the war in Ukraine on Thursday, he told 2 39 41 UPGRA DE TO LISTEN 5 MINS NEWSLET TERS ACCOUNT UPGRA DE President Volodymyr Zelensky, “We have a narrow window for peace— President Trump wants peace now.” The timing of the ultimatum, which European allies have described as a “capitulation” to Moscow, was no coincidence: President Zelensky has been embroiled in a wide-reaching corruption scandal , forcing him to dismiss top ministers and distance himself from key supporters. The White House, according to Western officials speaking to the Financial Times , saw this as an opportunity to force a weakened president into an unfavorable deal. It may do just the opposite. Ukrainian officials told me that President Zelensky will not sign the White House’s plan. He spent the weekend delivering defiant speeches to the Ukrainian public, developing a counterproposal with European supporters—and turning to political allies who have been tarred by the scandal to lead the negotiations, which began on Sunday. “There is no better moment. . . to get the public’s focus off the corruption scandal and unite the country around something much more important, much more existential,” Andriy Shevchenko, who served as Zelensky’s deputy minister of defense in 2023, told me. On Sunday, President Donald Trump lashed out at negative reaction to his plan, saying in a Truth Social post that Ukraine’s leaders had “EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS” and describing the war as a “LOSER.” Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the first day of negotiations as “probably the most productive and meaningful meeting so far in this entire process since we have been involved.” Trump has given Ukraine until Thursday to sign on to the plan. R EAD What Happens When Russia Takes Over Your School Before receiving the White House’s ultimatum this week, President Zelensky was staring down the weakest moment of his presidency. Two weeks ago, Ukraine’s chief anti-corruption agency released the findings of an investigation into an energy scandal implicating close allies of the president. The current justice and energy ministers, investigated for taking kickbacks, were fired amid accusations that they had skimmed up to $100 million from contracts meant to protect critical energy infrastructure from Russian attacks. Zelensky’s former business partner fled the country in the middle of the night, hours before he would have been arrested. Since the news of the scandal became public on November 12, Zelensky has faced unprecedented domestic opposition. “It is certainly the worst scandal of the war,” Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, told me. Ukrainian lawmakers have called for elections and demanded the firing of the president’s influential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and his foreign policy envoy, Rustem Umerov, for their alleged ties to the scandal. When an entourage of American generals arrived in Kyiv on Thursday with a peace plan that had been negotiated between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, the expectation seemed to be that Zelensky’s unstable government could be coerced into signing on to the agreement. It was reminiscent , Ukrainian lawmakers speculated, of the critical minerals deal earlier this year when the U.S. applied maximum pressure during a weak moment for Ukraine to bring Zelensky to the negotiating table. This proposal is vastly more significant. It would require Ukraine to cede territory it controls to Russia and drastically reduce the size of its military. According to Ukrainian officials, the Americans did not take into account the limits on Zelensky’s ability to unilaterally accept the terms. “There is a basic misunderstanding of how Ukrainian politics work,” Shevchenko told me. “For a serious decision that would go against civil society, the political class, and the military. . . . It’s not the case that the president himself can decide something without relying strongly on public opinion.” “We are, of course, focused on doing our jobs and following our orders to hold these positions. But the idea that we might be forced to withdraw from them is heartbreaking. . . I have already left part of myself here. Literally.” —Illia Samoilenko, Ukrainian intelligence officer In Ukraine, the power of public opinion was on display 12 years ago, when then–Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych made a deal with Vladimir Putin that steered the country away from European integration and back into Russia’s orbit. Months of bloody protests in what came to be known as the Euromaidan Revolution deposed Yanukovych, who fled to Russia, where he now lives. “An agreement today would disappear the moment it is signed, because the Ukrainian people would be out in the streets immediately,” Sak said. President Zelensky appears to have embraced this reality, seeing in it the opportunity to salvage his compact with Ukrainian voters. In his public response to the proposal on Friday, he spoke not to the White House, but to his nation. “Right now, Ukraine may find itself facing a very tough choice. Either the loss of our dignity or the risk of losing a key partner,” he said, speaking in Ukrainian during a televised address. “They will expect an answer from us. Though the truth is, I already gave that answer, on May 20, 2019, when taking an oath of loyalty. . . to defend the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.” For at least one Ukrainian soldier, the address struck the right chord. Illia Samoilenko, an intelligence officer in Ukraine’s First National Defense Corps, survived weeks of Russian captivity in 2022 before being freed in a prisoner swap and rejoining his regiment later that year. He spoke to me via phone from a front-line position in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region which, if the proposal were accepted, would be given to Russia. “We are, of course, focused on doing our jobs and following our orders to hold these positions,” Samoilenko, who lost his left arm and right eye during the fighting, told me. “But the idea that we might be forced to withdraw from them is heartbreaking. . . I have already left part of myself here. Literally.” According to Samoilenko, his unit has been able to fend off “almost every Russian advance” due to resources that continue to flow from Western countries. He is therefore concerned about threats from the White House about pausing military aid if the deal is not accepted. Still, he welcomed his president’s defiant stance as an opportunity “to shift morale”: “This is a reminder that we all took an oath to defend our country, to defend our people, to defend our nation, and to to fight for its integrity and sovereignty.” On Saturday, Zelensky named his negotiating team to officially respond to the American proposal. Leading the effort is his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who many in the Ukrainian media speculated might be fired because of the corruption scandal. His number two, Rustem Umerov, is still under investigation by Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities. And yet, their position at the head of the delegation sends a bold sign of strength and unity. “Quit the squabbling. Stop the political games. . . . All of us together must not forget—and must not confuse—who exactly is the enemy of Ukraine,” Zelensky said during his address on Friday. As his embattled aides arrived in Geneva Sunday to begin negotiations, he is banking on the Ukrainian people having already reached the same judgment.