The Loss of Donbas: Western journalists reveal details of Trump’s new plan on Ukraine

U.S. President Donald Trump’s new plan on Ukraine stipulates that Russia will gain control over Donbas. At the same time, the areas of Donbas from which Ukraine will have to withdraw its troops will be considered a demilitarized zone, where Russia will not be allowed to deploy its forces.

This is reported by Axios, citing sources.

In addition, Axios writes that under Trump’s peace plan, the U.S. and other countries will recognize Crimea and Donbas as legally part of Russia, but Ukraine itself will not be asked to do so.

In the two other war-affected regions — Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — the current lines of control will remain unchanged. At the same time, Russia will return part of the territories, “which will be subject to negotiations” (apparently in other regions where Russian forces are advancing).

One Ukrainian official told the outlet that the plan also includes limits on the size of the Ukrainian army and on long-range weapons — in exchange for U.S. security guarantees, which, however, have not yet been defined.

According to the sources, Qatar and Turkey are involved in developing the plan. A senior Qatari official took part in talks between Trump’s special envoy Stephen Witkoff and Ukraine’s NSDC Secretary Rustem Umerov last weekend.

On the eve of those talks, Umerov received a mandate from Zelensky to negotiate with Witkoff, “and many of his comments were included in the text of the 28-point plan.”

“Much mutual understanding was reached in the negotiations with Umerov,” the article says.

However, Ukrainian sources told Axios that Umerov did not accept all the conditions of the plan and said that Ukraine objected to many of its points.

This was one of the reasons why Witkoff refused to fly to Ankara to meet with Zelensky and Yermak, Axios writes.

“The meeting was postponed when it became clear that Zelensky was backing away from the understandings reached with Umerov and was not interested in discussing Trump’s plan. Instead, Zelensky was heading to Ankara with another plan, developed jointly with European partners, which Russia will never accept,” a U.S. official told the outlet.

“Zelensky asked to discuss the plan in a broader format, including European countries,” the outlet cites as another reason for Witkoff’s decision not to go to Ankara. The corruption scandal in Kyiv also played a role in the Trump envoy’s decision.

The article says that it was Trump who authorized Witkoff to try to reach an agreement with Zelensky in Turkey, but the U.S. president later backed the decision to cancel the meeting with the Ukrainian leader.

“Now we will wait. The ball is in Zelensky’s court,” a U.S. official said.

He added that Zelensky can come to Washington to discuss the new U.S. plan if he wishes.

Meanwhile, the Reuters news agency, citing two sources familiar with the matter, reports that U.S. proposals to end the war in Ukraine include Kyiv giving up some territories as well as certain types of weapons. According to the agency, the U.S. will signal to Volodymyr Zelensky that these framework terms will have to be accepted.

At the same time, Financial Times journalist Christopher Miller wrote on X that the U.S.–Russia peace plan includes not only Ukraine’s renunciation of Donbas, but also a reduction of its armed forces.

According to him, the plan includes:

• cutting the Ukrainian army in half;

• Ukraine giving up certain types of weapons;

• Ukraine giving up Donbas.

“Zelensky will not be happy about this,” Miller adds.

Recall that earlier The Wall Street Journal wrote that U.S. Army Minister Daniel Driscoll will hold talks in Kyiv with Volodymyr Zelensky on behalf of Donald Trump, after which he will travel to Russia to resume peace negotiations.