The U.S. are demanding concessions from Ukraine in the talks in order to end the war by summer — NYT

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is increasing pressure on Ukraine, demanding that it make concessions to Russia—specifically, agree to withdraw troops from Donbas—in order to end the war by early summer.

This is reported by The New York Times, citing Ukrainian officials.

However, the article does not describe exactly how the United States is pressuring Kyiv.

“It is unclear what steps the United States is prepared to take if it does not get what it wants from Ukraine on the issues of territory and elections,” the report says.

“Whatever concessions may be discussed,” the Ukrainian side says it cannot reach an agreement with Moscow without firm security guarantees from Western allies. At the same time, Kyiv believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin would reject any deal that includes guarantees Ukraine would consider sufficiently reliable.

“The form of such guarantees remains unclear, despite years of negotiations and active diplomacy since Trump took office. According to available information, the most recent discussions have focused on technical issues, such as procedures in the event a ceasefire is violated, but the key questions Ukraine needs answered before agreeing to concessions to Russia remain unresolved,” the article says.

Earlier, lawmakers said that the United States does indeed want to wrap up negotiations by May 15, but that this is not a hard deadline.