TEHRAN (Iran News) In November 2025, Donald Trump presented a 28-point proposal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia. He exerted significant pressure on Kyiv to accept the agreement by Thanksgiving.

In his televised speech on November 22, Zelensky announced that the plan amounted to “a loss of national dignity,” and he said he was not willing to trade his country’s independence for external pressure. Zelensky warned that rejecting the plan might jeopardize U.S. support, but he stressed that Ukraine must choose between “honor” and “a key partner.”

Reports indicate that Trump’s team had previously conveyed a draft of the plan to Zelensky via a phone call rather than during an official meeting in Kyiv; this led Zelensky to say that the pressure to sign it placed Ukraine in one of the toughest moments in its history.

Zelensky’s rejection of Trump’s plan demonstrates prioritizing independence and national identity over short-term political benefits. He did not want to accept an agreement that could be interpreted as legitimizing Russia’s occupation.

Trump, of course, sought to end the war quickly with an agreement and reduce economic and political pressure on the United States. But the short deadline and vague conditions of the plan made it unacceptable for Ukraine.

Zelensky’s rejection of Trump’s proposal may strain relations between Ukraine and the United States, but it simultaneously strengthens Zelensky’s position as a leader standing firm against external pressure.

It seems this episode was less a genuine peace plan and more a test of Ukraine’s political independence. By rejecting it, Zelensky sent a clear message that even in difficult circumstances, he is not willing to sacrifice national dignity.

Of course, it must be acknowledged that Ukraine is going through difficult days, and Russia has taken a humiliation that it will not easily let go.

The post Zelensky, Two Dead Ends appeared first on Iran News Daily.

TEHRAN (Iran News) US President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders for talks on the war in Ukraine. While officials described the discussions on Monday as making “progress,” no peace deal or ceasefire appeared imminent.

The talks, held at the White House, followed discussions between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, now its fourth year.

Trump hosted Putin in the city of Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, for the discussions that produced no agreement on a ceasefire either.

“All of us would obviously prefer an immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace. Maybe something like that could happen. As of this moment, it’s not happening,” Trump said addressing his meeting with leaders from Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the EU and NATO.

The US president however assured Zelensky that American support would be part of any security guarantees for Ukraine in a potential peace agreement, though the specifics of such commitments remained undefined.

Following the Monday summit, Trump also announced that he has initiated preparations for a potential meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents, which would be followed by a meeting between Trump, Putin, and Zelensky.

Putin has agreed to face-to-face talks with Zelensky, according to Trump and European leaders, but Russia has not confirmed any meeting yet. Zelensky also expressed openness to talks with Russia “in any format.”

This is while, the Russian president has previously resisted a one-on-one meeting with Zelensky.

Trump characterized the multilateral summit with Zelensky and European leaders as “an important preliminary move” in resolving the nearly four-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“I believe this is a major step forward,” Zelensky was quoted by The Guardian as saying.

He added that the security guarantees for Ukraine would probably be worked out within 10 days.

Ukraine will promise to buy $100bn of US weapons financed by Europe as part of a deal to get guarantees from the US for its security if there is a peace settlement with Russia, according to news reports.

In the meantime, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the Monday talks at the White house as “good and constructive” over the “two material outcomes”, including work on security guarantees, and the planned Putin-Zelensky meeting.

French President Emmanuel Macron echoed similar comments. He said the most significant outcome of the talks at the White House was the willingness of the US to work on the content of security guarantees for Ukraine. Macron meanwhile called for stepping up sanctions against Russia if Putin does not move forward on peace with Ukraine.

The post Ukraine peace deal far from imminent after Trump meets Zelensky and European leaders appeared first on Iran News Daily.

TEHRAN (Iran News)  A remarkable shouting match broke out in the Oval Office on Friday between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, an extraordinarily fractious display that only underscored the deeply uncertain future of American assistance to Kyiv.

Zelensky has just left the White House grounds without answering reporters’ questions.

Castigating Zelensky for not demonstrating enough gratitude for American support, Trump and his Vice President JD Vance raised their voices, accusing Zelensky of standing in the way of a peace agreement.

“You’re not really in a good position right now.” Trump said. “You’re gambling with World War III.”

At one moment, Vance accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” toward his American hosts.

“You’re not acting all that thankful,” Trump added.

“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance asked Zelensky.

It was an entirely unprecedented moment in recent US presidential history – a foreign wartime visitor coming under repeated scolding from his American hosts.

Ahead of his arrival, Trump had already voiced open hostility toward Zelensky, whom he termed a dictator.

But the tense 10-minute exchange in the Oval Office went well beyond any of the usual diplomatic rifts, allowing the gulf between the men to play out publicly in front of television cameras. It was about as angry as Trump has ever allowed himself to be seen in public.

“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” the US president told Zelensky, adding later: “If we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it will be pretty.”

The post Zelensky leaves White House after extraordinary shouting match with Trump, Vance appeared first on Iran News Daily.

TEHRAN (Iran News)  Trump arrived in Paris on Saturday to attend the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, extensively damaged in a fire in 2019. The trip was Trump’s first foreign visit since he defeated Kamala Harris in last month’s presidential election, but he nevertheless arrived at the Elysee Palace 40 minutes late, French media reported.

Trump and Macron shared a warm embrace outside the palace, and speaking to reporters inside, Macron said that it was a “great honor” to host the incoming US president. Trump returned the compliment, before declaring that “the world seems to be going a little crazy right now.”

Zelensky, who was originally due to hold a one-on-one meeting with Macron, arrived nearly an hour later, before the three met for roughly 35 minutes, according to BFMTV. The three men did not speak to the press afterwards, and left for Notre Dame separately after posing for pictures.

In a post on X, Macron said that the meeting was focused on “common action for peace and security.” Zelensky, also posting on X, described the talks as “good and productive.”

“President Trump is, as always, resolute. I thank him,” Zelensky wrote. “We all want this war to end as soon as possible and in a just way,” he continued. “We spoke about our people, the situation on the ground, and a just peace.”

“We agreed to continue working together and keep in contact. Peace through strength is possible,” he concluded, using a catchphrase regularly deployed by Trump to describe his foreign policy.

Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised that he would end the Ukraine conflict within “24 hours” of taking office, without offering any specifics on how he would achieve this beyond pushing Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiations. Recent media reports suggest that he intends to ‘freeze’ the conflict along the current line of contact, using the threat of a reduction in US aid to force Zelensky to negotiate, and the threat of increased aid to Kiev to pressure Putin into talks.

Zelensky insists that his ten-point ‘peace formula’ is the only viable path to what he calls a “just peace” with Russia. However, the Kremlin has dismissed this document as “delusional,” with its demands that Russia restore Ukraine’s 1991 borders, pay reparations, and surrender its own officials to war-crimes tribunals.

Moscow maintains that any settlement must begin with Ukraine ceasing military operations and acknowledging the “territorial reality” that it will never regain control of the Russian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, as well as Crimea. In addition, the Kremlin insists that the goals of its military operation – which include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification – will be achieved.

The post Zelensky: Meeting with Trump and Macron was ‘productive’ appeared first on Iran News Daily.

TEHRAN (Iran News) –  A source has told Russian media that peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv are set to resume on Monday after the Russian president said the negotiations had effectively run into a “deadlock.”

The unidentified source says “It is not a postponement. The meeting will begin in the morning. The reason is the Ukrainian delegation’s logistics”.

Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who leads the Russian delegation to the talks, earlier noted that an agreement had been reached with the Ukrainian side on Sunday to hold talks in Belarus.

The Russian delegation is said to have already left Minsk and is heading for the venue of the talks, which will reportedly not be disclosed.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak has accused Russia of putting pressure on the peace talks process by making “certain public statements.”

“Negotiations are extremely difficult. Online in working subgroups. But they go on. It is clear that the emotional background in the negotiation process today is grim. It is clear that the Ukrainian delegation works exclusively within a framework that is pro-Ukrainian and transparent,” Podolyak told local media.

The Russian president has blamed the Ukrainian side for the stalemate in the talks, saying Kyiv had reneged on what had been agreed on during talks in Turkey, late in March.

“Kyiv has walked away from the Istanbul agreements. [We] have returned to a deadlock,” Putin said.

Russia and Ukraine have engaged in many rounds of peace talks after the conflict between the two countries broke out in late February. Some have been held face to face and others have been held virtually.

The negotiations have not produced any tangible results yet but has allowed the two sides to find common ground on humanitarian issues.

While the head of Russia’s negotiating team, Vladimir Medinsky, expressed some optimism in the wake of talks in Istanbul, saying Ukraine had signaled its readiness to declare itself a neutral state [outside of NATO], there remain major stumbling blocks.

On Wednesday, France’s President Emmanuel Macron told French media that he planned to hold new talks with Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart very soon.

“In the coming days, I will speak again by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin” Macron, who is also campaigning for a second presidential term, said.

Zelensky has declared he was ready to swap a detained Russian political party leader for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

In a video address on Wednesday, he said “I propose to the Russian Federation to swap [Medvedchuk] for our folks who are in Russian captivity. That is why it is important for our law enforcers and the military to consider this opportunity as well,” Zelensky added.

During a joint press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, Putin says Russia will act according to its plan on the battlefield

“I often get these questions, ‘can’t we hurry it up?’ We can. But it depends on the intensity of hostilities and, any way you put it, the intensity of hostilities is directly related to casualties,” said the Russian president.

He added that “our task is to achieve the set goals while minimizing these losses. We will act rhythmically, calmly, and according to the plan that was initially proposed by the General Staff.”

Putin also says sanctions imposed on his country would not have their desired effect, drawing an analogy between Russia’s situation today and that of the Soviet Union in 1961, when a Russian was the first man in space. “The sanctions were total, the isolation was complete, but the Soviet Union was still first in space,” Putin said.

“The blitzkrieg which our foes were counting on did not work,” Putin added, referring to the unprecedented western sanctions imposed after Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine begun.

This as U.S. President Joe Biden is preparing to escalate the crisis by sending heavy artillery and other systems, worth $750 million, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told the media.

Activists and advocates for a swift and peaceful end to the conflict say the more backing there is for negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations the faster the war will end.

The weapons will be authorized by Biden without congressional approval.

One of the officials said final determinations were still being made about the mix of equipment.

A senior congressional aide said the equipment to be announced would likely include heavy ground artillery systems to Ukraine, including howitzers.

The White House said last week that it has provided more than $1.7 billion in weapons to Ukraine since late February. The total amount of U.S. military weapons to Kyiv is set to pass $2.4 billion since February 24.

Washington has sent more than 1,400 Stingers and 5,000 Javelins to Ukraine already according to the Pentagon.

According to a Washington lobby group, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), this amounts to a third of America’s stockpile of Javelins and a quarter of its Stingers.

CSIS is funded by weapons manufacturing companies, which have included Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and General Atomics. Another donor is Raytheon, which manufactures Javelins and Stingers.

Production levels will be one of the topics at a meeting between Pentagon officials and the top eight American weapons manufacturers.
Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and L3 Harris Technologies are expected to be in attendance.

Many anti-war advocates say the U.S. and its Western allies should be backing the peace talks effort to end the conflict instead of making a profit from weapons supplies which are being sent to a conflict zone once again at the expense of U.S. taxpayers’ money.

Many have accused the West of wanting to prolong the fighting by sending weapons with Washington and London standing widely accused of not wanting the fighting to cease.

Ukraine’s deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk’s highlighted the lack of humanitarian corridors that were set up on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry Spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov says over 1,000 Ukrainian troops, including 162 officers have surrendered in Mariupol.

Questioned on the Russian claim, Ukraine’s defense ministry spokesperson told reporters that they had no information on any surrender.

Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, after warning NATO to stop expanding eastward toward Russian borders with Ukraine. Moscow also accused Kyiv of failing to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014 which led to Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk

Russia has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the U.S.-led NATO military bloc.

Kyiv insists the Russian offensive was unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics of Donetsk and Lugansk by force.

Elsewhere, the UN has warned that Ukrainian female refugees are at risk in the UK of sexual exploitation under the British Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Under the UK government’s scheme, British households must house Ukrainian refugees themselves, leaving tens of thousands of people resorting to social media platforms, that are unregulated to make connections.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR says it “believes that a more appropriate matching process could be put in place by ensuring that women and women with children are matched with families or couples, rather than with single men.”

“Matching done without the appropriate oversight may lead to increasing the risks women may face, in addition to the trauma of displacement, family separation, and violence already experienced,” a spokesperson said.

Leading British refugee charity groups had already raised concern about the scheme amid increasing reports of sexual predators targeting female refugees.

The post Russia-Ukraine peace talks “to resume” as Biden seeks escalation appeared first on Iran News Daily.