New Delhi: Ukraine may face the “very tough choice” of either accepting Washington's peace plan at the cost of its dignity, or risking losing America as a key partner, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, in response to which US President Donald Trump has argued that Kyiv does not have leverage.

Russian President Vladimir Putin for his part described the 28-point plan as a potential “basis for a final peaceful settlement” and threatened Ukraine with further losses if it does not accept the proposal.

The US plan, which among other things would require Ukraine to cede land that Russia has already occupied as well as is yet to, reduce the size of its military and forgo the possibility of joining NATO, is being seen as favouring Moscow more than Kyiv.

European nations have been working on a ‘counter-proposal’ of a peace plan which will reportedly be examined by negotiators from the continent and the US.

In a recorded statement issued on Friday (November 21), Zelenskyy said that Ukraine may have to choose between the “difficult” 28-point plan and “an extremely hard winter”.

“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. Either the difficult 28 points, or an extremely hard winter – the hardest yet – and the dangers that follow,” he was quoted as saying in an official translation of his address.

Still, he said Kyiv “will work calmly with the United States and with all our partners”. “I will lay out the arguments. I will persuade. I will offer alternatives. But one thing is certain: we will not give the enemy reasons to claim that Ukraine doesn’t want peace,” he added.

Trump, who earlier on Friday told Fox News he expects Kyiv to accept the plan by Thursday, November 27, responded to Zelenskyy's statements by saying he ‘does not have the cards’.

Asked in the Oval Office about the Ukrainian president's remarks, Trump said: “He'll have to like it [the plan]. And if he doesn't like it, then, you know, they should just keep fighting, I guess.”

Further asked if Washington would roll back its support for Zelenskyy if he does not accept the plan, Trump responded: “Well, at some point he's going to have to accept something. And he hasn't accepted–you remember, right, in the Oval Office, not so long ago, I said ‘You don't have the cards’,” referring to a tense meeting he had held with the Ukrainian president in March.

Meanwhile, Putin said on Friday that Ukraine would experience more losses if it does not accept the plan.

“I believe that it [the plan] can be used as the basis for a final peaceful settlement,” Putin said during a meeting of the Russian Security Council, which gathers Russia's most powerful officials.

Saying that Washington had “so far failed to secure the consent of the Ukrainian side”, which he said was “against” the plan, Putin added that Russian advances in eastern Ukraine would continue if Kyiv refused the proposal.

While Russian infantry continues to grind forward in eastern Ukraine – at huge human cost – missile and drone strikes continue to pound Ukraine's energy system ahead of the onset of winter. Alongside, the political establishment in Kyiv has been rocked by a corruption scandal involving senior officials and business elites.

One of the plan's 28 points is that Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk, including areas Russian forces have failed to seize, would be recognised as ‘de facto’ Russian, including by the US. Moscow has illegally occupied Crimea since 2014.

Other key features that would seem to favour Russia is that Ukraine would have to limit its military to 600,000 troops and would be prevented from joining NATO.

In return, Ukraine is to “receive robust security guarantees” that it might view with some suspicion after the assurances given within the so-called Budapest Memorandum of 1994, which saw Kyiv give up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons, failed to protect it against Russian aggression.

Another demand in the proposal that is likely to be contested by Ukraine is that “all Nazi ideology and activities must be rejected and prohibited”. That demand would seem to lend credibility to Putin's claim that Ukraine is in the hands of Nazis and that his invasion aims, in part, to “de-Nazify” the country.

With inputs from DW.

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