Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly thanked Donald Trump for US military support, just hours after the US president again accused Kyiv of showing “zero gratitude” in a social media post.
“Ukraine is grateful to the United States, to every American heart and personally to President Trump for the assistance that, starting with the Javelins, has been saving Ukrainian lives,” Zelensky wrote on X.
The reference was to US-made Javelin anti-tank missiles, thousands of which were supplied to Ukraine in the early stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The weapons quickly became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance and a key factor in halting Russian armoured advances around Kyiv and in the northeast in 2022.
Zelensky’s carefully worded post appeared designed both to defuse Trump’s criticism and to underline that Kyiv still depends heavily on American military backing as it enters a fourth year of war.
Joint statement from Geneva talks
The exchange came as senior US, Ukrainian and European officials met in Geneva to work on a possible deal to end the war, built around a controversial 28-point plan originally pushed by Washington.
In a joint statement released by the White House and echoed by the Ukrainian side, the two governments said any eventual agreement with Moscow “must fully uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty” and deliver a “just and lasting peace”. The talks in Switzerland were described as “constructive, focused and respectful” and as a “significant step forward” in efforts to end the conflict that began with Russia’s invasion on 24 February 2022.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the American delegation, told reporters he was “very optimistic” that a deal could be reached “very soon”, calling the working text a “basic document” that is still being refined.
According to the joint communiqué, US and Ukrainian negotiators have now produced an “updated and refined peace framework”, after reworking the original Trump-backed draft. Both sides pledged to continue intensive technical work “in the coming days” and to keep close contact with European allies.
From a ‘Russian wish list’ to a revised plan
The original 28-point blueprint, which leaked earlier this month, sparked alarm in Kyiv and several European capitals. The text was criticised for demanding that Ukraine hand over all of the Donbas region, recognise Russian control of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk, cap its armed forces at around 600,000 troops and abandon any prospect of joining NATO. Some US senators went as far as to call it a Russian “wish list”.
Under intense pushback, US officials have since stressed that the plan is a “living, breathing document” rather than a take-it-or-leave-it offer. Rubio has privately told lawmakers the draft did not represent the administration’s formal position and said parts of it had originated on the Russian side.
European leaders, including Germany’s Friedrich Merz and France’s Emmanuel Macron, have been pressing Washington to strip out provisions they see as too favourable to Moscow, especially on territorial concessions and limits to Ukraine’s long-term security options.
Kyiv insists on sovereignty and ‘just peace’
Despite facing military and economic pressure at home, Zelensky and his team have repeatedly drawn red lines around sovereignty and security. After earlier rounds of talks on the US proposals, National Security and Defence Council secretary Rustem Umerov said Ukraine was examining every idea but expected “respectful” treatment of its position and would only consider solutions consistent with its principles of sovereignty, the safety of its people and a “just peace”.
In Geneva, chief negotiator Andriy Yermak spoke of “very good progress”, while Zelensky said the latest version of the framework now reflects “the majority of Ukraine’s key priorities”.
Trump had initially set a 27 November deadline for Kyiv to respond to his peace initiative, before later insisting the plan was not his “final offer”. US officials in Geneva are now playing down the idea of a hard deadline as they continue technical work with Ukrainian and European counterparts.
NATO, EU and security guarantees still unresolved
Some of the most sensitive issues remain unresolved. Rubio has acknowledged that outstanding questions involve Ukraine’s future relationship with NATO and the European Union, as well as the shape of any long-term security guarantees that would accompany a ceasefire or peace deal.
“Some of it is language, some of it requires higher-level decisions,” he said after the Geneva talks, adding that none of the remaining points were “insurmountable”. Any revised framework will still need to be presented to Moscow, which has so far continued offensive operations on the ground while signalling that it is open to talks on its own terms.
For now, Zelensky’s public expression of gratitude to Trump sits alongside a harder private message from Kyiv. Ukraine is prepared to negotiate, but only on a deal that does not trade away its sovereignty or leave it permanently vulnerable to renewed Russian aggression.
Sources: euronews, AP News, Reuters