Ukraine-Russia newest: Trump threatens to skip peace talks after Zelensky rejects ‘free economic zone’ thought

Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed a US proposal to turn the eastern Donbas region into a “free economic zone,” warning it would expose Ukrainian territory to future risks.

Speaking in Kyiv, he pushed back firmly against Washington’s suggestion – an idea Moscow has also pushed as a “demilitarised zone”.

He said the US concept appeared to involve a withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donetsk while Russian troops would refrain from advancing.

“They see that Ukrainian troops are leaving the territory of Donetsk Oblast, and the compromise seems to be that Russian troops will not enter this territory,” he said.

“They do not know who will govern this territory.”

He argued the proposal offered no credible safeguards against disguised Russian incursions.

“If one side’s troops have to retreat and the other side stays where they are, then what will hold back these other troops, the Russians? Or what will stop them disguising themselves as civilians and taking over this free economic zone? This is all very serious.”

The territorial question remains the central deadlock to talks, he said, making clear that no Ukrainian government could cede Donetsk or the remaining Ukrainian-held areas of neighbouring Luhansk.

“The Russians want the whole of Donbas – we don’t accept that,” Zelensky said.Luhansk is almost entirely occupied by Russia, while around 6,600 square kilometres of Donetsk – including the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk – remain under Ukrainian control amid fierce fighting around Pokrovsk.

Kyiv is also resisting US suggestions for joint governance of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest — which Moscow insists must remain under Russian control.

“We have two key points of disagreement: the territory of Donetsk and everything related to it, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” Zelensky said.

“These are the two topics we continue to discuss.”

The Ukrainian leader said further discussions concern Russia’s limited withdrawals from small pockets in the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions, while the front lines in the partially occupied southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson would remain frozen at current positions under the draft terms.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukrainians should decide in a national vote whether the country can concede any disputed territory, as Kyiv delivered revised peace proposals to the United States.

US president Donald Trump signalled he may send a representative to talks in Europe this weekend, but only if progress appears possible. “We’ll see whether or not we attend the meeting,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

“We’ll be attending the meeting on Saturday in Europe if we think there’s a good chance. And we don’t want to waste a lot of time if we think it’s negative.”

He added: “I thought we were close to a deal.”

Zelensky said that despite ongoing negotiations, “there is still no common understanding on the land issue”, stressing that any decision over ceding territory must come from citizens themselves.

“I believe that the people of Ukraine will answer this question. Whether through elections or a referendum, there must be a position from the people of Ukraine,” he said.

Ukraine has handed Washington a 20-point blueprint for potential peace terms, with each element reportedly supported by its own detailed document.President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Kyiv that progress remained uncertain.

“We are grateful that the US is working with us and trying to take a balanced position,” he told reporters.

“But at this moment it is still difficult to say what the final documents will look like.”Russia has intensified its drive to seize the remaining parts of Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk, the two regions that form the Donbas – Ukraine’s industrial heartland.

Zelensky stressed that Kyiv would not agree to surrender the territory, saying that a settlement in which both sides hold their current positions along the line of contact would constitute “a fair outcome”.

He said US negotiators have floated the idea of a “free economic zone” in Donbas, while Russian officials have referred to a “demilitarised zone”. Moscow has not publicly outlined its proposals.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said negotiators are grappling with Russian demands over territorial control as US-led peace talks attempt to chart a path towards ending the war.

Key disputes include the status of the eastern Donetsk region and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the world’s largest atomic facilities.

Zelensky disclosed elements of the discussions before heading into urgent talks with leaders and officials from around 30 countries backing Kyiv’s push for fair terms to halt nearly four years of fighting.

In Washington, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said president Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is continuing to hold discussions with both sides.

She said that “if there is a real chance of signing a peace agreement”, the US could send a representative to talks as early as this weekend.However, she stressed it remains uncertain “whether we believe real peace can be achieved”.

Trump has long claimed he could resolve the war in a day, but has recently expressed deep frustration with the lack of progress.

Ms Leavitt echoed this, saying the president is “extremely frustrated with both sides”, noting that US officials have held more than 30 hours of meetings with Russian, Ukrainian and European counterparts.“He doesn’t want any more talk,” Leavitt said. “He wants action.”

Sir Keir Starmer and allied leaders agreed it is a “pivotal moment” for Ukraine as efforts continue to secure an end to Russia’s war.

The prime minister earlier insisted that Donald Trump and European leaders want the “same thing” for Ukraine, despite tensions in relations with the US president.

Kyiv has rejected parts of a US-drafted peace plan and has sent Washington its own 20-point proposal as negotiations continue.

The White House said it was uncertain whether a US official would join talks reportedly planned for this weekend with European and Ukrainian representatives, saying the president wants “action” and is “sick of meetings”.

After a week of intense diplomacy, Sir Keir was asked whether progress was possible by the weekend. “We do need to make progress,” he said.

“And what President Trump wants, what Ukraine wants, what Europeans want, is the same thing, which is a just and lasting peace in Ukraine after the nearly four-year aggression from Putin and Russia.”

He said “a number of issues” remain unresolved but stressed that the UK “supports Ukraine in this fight, not of their making”.

Sir Keir later briefed allies on the “continued intensive work” on the US-led peace plan during a virtual meeting of the Coalition of the Willing.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French president Emmanuel Macron and officials from 30 countries took part.

“They all agreed this is a pivotal moment for Ukraine, its people and for the security we all share across the Euro-Atlantic region,” Downing Street said.

Russian air defence systems destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and the Black Sea overnight, according to its defence ministry.

Local authorities reported that seven people were injured in the city of Tver.

Russia only reports on the Ukrainian drones that it downs, and does not provide tallies for the total fired or those that hit their targets.

Europe must prepare for a conflict with Russia “on the scale our grandparents endured”, Nato’s secretary general has said in a stark warning to the West.

“We are Russia’s next target. And we are already in harm’s way,” Mark Rutte said in a speech in Berlin on Thursday.

Europe must be prepared to deter Russia as the “shadow of war” looms, a minister said amid a warning from the head of Nato.

Armed forces minister Al Carns said countries need to “increase our lethality” and stop outsourcing it to others.

It comes after Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said Europe was “Russia’s next target” and warned countries to prepare for a “scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured”.

Precarious peace efforts surrounding a US-led plan to end the war in Ukraine are ongoing, with sir Keir Starmer insisting Trump and his European counterparts are aligned on what they want for Kyiv.

But relations between Europe and the US are strained after the Trump administration’s national security strategy accused European officials of holding “unrealistic expectations” for the war in Ukraine.

Carns told The Telegraph: “For the last 50 to 60 years, we have been reliant on US security guarantees and now, with multipolar threats facing the US, they may not be as forthright as they have in the past.”

While Donald Trump has agreed he is “fully in” Nato and its Article 5 collective defence clause, “there is a resource issue where they need to look both east and west”, he said.

“In the past, in wars of choice, we’ve outsourced our lethality to others.”We’ve got to make sure that we increase our lethality … across all of our single services,” he said.

Having “outsourced” to the US in the past, Europe and the UK have now pledged to “up our game on defence spending”, he said.

He added: “The shadow of war is knocking on Europe’s door once more.

“That’s the reality. We’ve got to be prepared to deter it. Collectively in Nato, we’ve got to remember that numerically – we outmatch Russia significantly.”