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Trump says Zelensky doesn’t have anything ‘until I approve it’

Saturday, 27 December 2025 10:32 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 27 December 2025 12:09 PM ]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump participate in a meeting in the Oval Office in August 2025. (Photo by AFP)

US President Donald Trump has said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “doesn’t have anything until I approve it.”

Zelensky claimed he has prepared a new 20-point peace plan for the Ukraine war that he is expected to pitch to Trump during a meeting in Florida on Sunday.

“He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” Trump told Politico in an interview on Friday.

“So we’ll see what he’s got,” he said.

“I think it’s going to go good with him. I think it’s going to go good with [Vladimir] Putin,” he added.

Trump said he expected to speak with the Russian leader “soon, as much as I want.”

The framework of Zelensky’s new peace plan includes a proposed demilitarized zone while his meeting with Trump is expected to focus on US security guarantees.

Zelensky’s plan, which Ukrainian officials have described as an attempt to show flexibility without conceding territory, has received little public reaction from Washington.

His proposed demilitarized zone includes a key condition: Russia would have to withdraw its forces from a corresponding stretch of land in Donetsk.

European and Ukrainian revisions to US proposals hindering peace efforts: Russia

Russia says the chances of peace in Ukraine are hampered due to changes made by the Europeans and Ukrainians to the US proposals.

Zelensky has already spoken with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. He described the talks as a “good conversation.”

Moscow has given no indication that it is willing to accept any of Zelensky’s new proposals after holding revision talks.

The so-called Ukraine peace effort initiated by Trump in the framework of a 28-point plan to end the nearly four-year-old war was later boiled down to a 20-point plan.

Trump’s 20-point plan rests on the premise that the Russian-speaking Donbas territory in eastern Ukraine will join Russia. He has been pressing Zelensky to accept his plan to end war.

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