The meeting in Kiev, where the US detailed its peace deal, was “nauseating,” an EU official told the outlet. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky shook hands with US Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll. The Trump administration set a deadline for Ukraine to sign its peace plan by Thursday, according to sources. Driscoll discussed the US proposal to settle the conflict between Russia and Ukraine with Zelensky during a meeting in Kiev on Friday evening, the paper reported. A senior official described the tone of the gathering at the residence of US Chargé d’Affaires in the Ukrainian capital as “nauseating,” saying Driscoll showed up late and used obscene language to make Washington’s point clear. “We need to get this sht done,” he reportedly said. The senior official stated that the secretary insisted, “We have a narrow window for peace – President Trump wants peace now.” One of the ambassadors cited Driscoll as saying, “The US Armed Forces love Ukraine… but it is the honest US military assessment that Ukraine is in a very bad position.” Trump’s envoy added that “security guarantees” for Ukraine are part of the US plan and will be discussed with the Western Europeans and Kiev in the coming days. The FT reported that Driscoll had turned down calls by EU and UK officials to put more pressure on Russia, instead of suing for peace now. “It turns out this is even worse than we thought,” another senior EU official briefed on the meeting told the paper. The US peace plan has not been officially disclosed, but according to media reports, it calls upon Ukraine to withdraw troops from the parts of Russia’s Donbass it still controls, downsize its military, and give up on NATO aspirations in exchange for Western security guarantees. The push by Washington to persuade Ukraine to agree to its road-map comes amid a corruption scandal in Kiev, which has significantly weakened Zelenskiy’s political position. Zelensky said on Friday that Ukraine must brace for a tough choice between accepting the “28 difficult points” in Washington’s plan or risk losing a key backer in the face of the US. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the American proposal could “form the basis of a final peace settlement.”
