Vance Outlines U.S. Plan for Ukraine That Sharply Favors Russia

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/world/europe/ukraine-cease-fire-talks-london.html

Vance Outlines U.S. Plan for Ukraine That Sharply Favors Russia
Vice President JD Vance said the cease-fire plan would freeze territory along the current front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and that the U.S. would “walk away” if both parties did not agree.

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday called on Ukraine to accept an American peace proposal that closely aligns with longstanding Russian goals, including a “freeze” of territorial lines in the three-year war, acceptance of the annexation of Crimea by Russia and a prohibition on Ukraine becoming part of the NATO alliance.

It was the first time a U.S. official had publicly laid out a plan to end the war that favors Russia in such stark terms.

A peace plan that leaves Russian forces deep inside eastern Ukraine would be welcome news in Moscow. President Vladimir V. Putin has said for almost year that he would accept a cease-fire in which Ukraine withdraws troops from the four regions that Russia has claimed as its own and drops its aspirations to join NATO.

The comments by the vice president appeared designed to increase pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has long refused to accept Russian’s occupation of his country’s lands, including the seizure of Crimea in 2014 and territory taken by Russia after it invaded Ukraine in early 2022.