Friday’s Coverage: Europe Gathers to Support Kyiv
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has noted the Kremlin’s dismissal of Ukraine-US proposals to end Moscow’s 37 1/2-month invasion.
Today marks exactly one month since Russia rejected the U.S. proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire, one month that has made it completely clear – Russia is the sole cause of this war. Without strength against Russia, there will be no will in Russia to accept and… pic.twitter.com/UZVy7dl3Po
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 11, 2025
The Kremlin nominally accepted the proposal to halt attacks on energy infrastructure, but has continued nightly missile and drone strikes. Vladimir Putin rejected the Ukraine-US agreement to stop assaults in and from the Black Sea, demanding the lifting of American sanctions on Moscow.
Zelensky again emphasized the necessity of bolstered air defenses, asking the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Friday for another 10 Patriot anti-missile systems.
“What is needed now are political decisions to make them work for peace. We need that result,” Zelensky said.
Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg for more than four hours on Friday. No details were given of the discussion, with the Kremlin saying only, “The theme of the meeting: aspects of a Ukrainian settlement.”
But Reuters’ sources said Witkoff put his proposal to Trump last week, after meeting Putin’s senior financial and investment advisor Kirill Dmitriev in Washington. Before seeing Trump, Witkoff broke with normal security procedures by hosting Dmitriev in his personal residence for dinner.
The developer said to Trump that the fastest way to an end of Russia’s 37 1/2-month invasion was to hand over the regions that Putin tried to annex illegally in September 2022.
Russia occupied the Crimea peninsula in 2014 and has seized almost all of the Luhansk region. But Ukraine holds parts of the other three regions, including key cities, having reclaimed territory in a counter-offensive in autumn 2022.
Before meeting Putin on Friday, Witkoff conferred again with Dmitriev in St Petersburg. Russian State TV featured Dmitriev, who has been in contract with the Trump camp since at least January 2017, leaving a hotel with the envoy.
Dmitriev said the talks were “productive”.
Witkoff’s proposal bolsters the position of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said on Thursday that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky will have to accept territorial concessions.
Lavrov proclaimed that it is “impossible” for Ukraine to return to its 1991 internationally-recognized borders.
Split Among Trump Advisors
The Reuters sources said Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, pushed back Witkoff in the White House meeting. He said Kyiv, though willing to negotiate some terms over Russian-occupied land, would never agree to Moscow’s total ownership of the regions.
The meeting ended without Trump making a decision to change American strategy.
Kellogg said Friday that a settlement could parallel the status of Germany during the Cold War. Russia’s current occupation of areas would be accepted in the short term, but the rest of Ukraine would be supported by a “reassurance force” including UK and French troops.
There would be an 18-mile demilitarized zone in eastern Ukraine along the current frontline.
“You could almost make it look like what happened with Berlin after World War 2, when you had a Russian zone, a French zone and a British zone,” he said.
Kellogg later clarified on social media:
The Times article misrepresents what I said. I was speaking of a post-cease fire resiliency force in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty. In discussions of partitioning, I was referencing areas or zones of responsibility for an allied force (without US troops). I was NOT referring… https://t.co/wFBcEVjxtO
— Keith Kellogg (@generalkellogg) April 11, 2025
“Antagonistic” US-Ukraine Meeting Over Rare Earth Minerals
A meeting on Friday between US and Ukrainian officials made no progress on the Trump Administration’s demand for control of Ukrainian rare earth minerals.
A “source with knowledge of the meeting” said the discussion was “very antagonistic” because of the Administration’s “maximalist” draft proposal.
A Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed the discussions, but said only that they were “technical in nature”.
At the end of February, Ukraine and the US were on the verge of an agreement for joint control of the minerals, with 50% of the profits going to Ukrainian recovery and reconstruction. However, the signature ceremony was cancelled when Vice President J.D. Vance and Trump ambushed Zelensky in a White House press appearance.