Trump plan to let Russia keep Ukraine land ‘set in stone’

President Trump’s plan to let Russia keep occupied territory in Ukraine is “set in stone”, The Times has been told, as pressure builds on President Zelensky to accept a forced peace.

Trump met Zelensky in Rome on Saturday before Pope Francis’s funeral for what the White House described as “very productive” talks. The US president believes that the Ukrainian leader “really has no choice” but to sign up to the proposal, according to a source close to his special envoy Steve Witkoff. Trump is threatening to pull out of the peace process next week unless a deal is agreed.

The US proposal, presented by Witkoff to Moscow and Kyiv, was reported to include formal US recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea, the peninsula that was annexed in 2014, and de facto recognition of Russia’s control over areas of southern and eastern Ukraine that its forces have seized since the full-scale invasion of 2022.

A rival European and Ukrainian proposal makes discussion about control of territory dependent upon talks that would follow a ceasefire.

“Trump’s view is that this land has been seized and it is not going back,” said a source close to Witkoff.

“The deal on the table is that the Russian-occupied territory is going to remain occupied. Russia’s not pulling it out of it. That part is set in stone.”

The US believes that, if Ukraine rejects the deal, the war would go on for months and possibly years, with Kyiv reliant on Europe for funding and munitions, the source said. “The [US] funding cut-off actually is going to have as much of an impact as the weapons cut-off [this year], because Ukraine uses that money to buy more weapons from other allies,” the source added.

Asked if this was a “take it or leave it” moment for Zelensky, the source said the US saw it as “take it or take it”.

The Americans also believe European public opinion will turn against the huge expenditure required to keep Ukraine in the war as the continent heads towards recession — partly caused by Trump’s tariffs.

Witkoff held three hours of talks with President Putin in Moscow on Friday. Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy aide who took part in the talks, described the meeting as constructive and useful. “This conversation allowed Russia and the United States to further bring their positions closer together, not only on Ukraine but also on a number of other international issues,” he said. “As for the Ukrainian crisis itself, the discussion focused in particular on the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine.”

Zelensky has argued that Ukraine’s constitution forbids him from formally recognising Crimea as part of Russia, and has ruled out signing any peace deal that hands over control of Ukrainian territory.

Trump showed his uncompromising line on Russian-occupied Ukraine when he told Time magazine on Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia” and again blamed Kyiv for provoking Moscow’s invasion.

However, The Times understands that he is flexible on formal US recognition of Crimea at this stage, and is not trying to force Zelensky to sign away Ukrainian sovereignty, but to accept the Russian occupation.

Mariana Betsa, the Ukrainian deputy foreign minister, countered that Ukraine would do “whatever it takes” to take back Crimea.

“Our position is very clear and our president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is very clear on that. Crimea is Ukraine,” Betsa told Times Radio. “We’ll never recognise the attempted annexation by Russia. We will never recognise it as a Russian territory and we will take whatever it takes … to occupy our land, our country.”

She spoke hours after Yaroslav Moskalik, a senior Russian general, was killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow. The Kremlin blamed Ukrainian special forces for the attack.

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said that Ukraine may have to concede land to halt the war with Russia. He said it could be a “temporary” solution to end the three-year-long conflict. “One of the scenarios is … to give up territory. It’s not fair. But for the peace, temporary peace, maybe it can be a solution,” Klitschko told the BBC.

In London, the former commander of the Ukrainian armed forces said that Russia would continue to wage war against his country until it suffers a massive defeat.

“As long as the enemy has the resources, forces, and means to strike at our territory and attempt offensive actions, he will do so. This is a war of attrition,” Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain, said at the UK-Ukraine Defence Tech Forum. “Only the complete destruction of [Russia’s] ability to wage war, that is the military-economic potential, can put an end to this.”