President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Tuesday offered a course of action that he said could end the war, while trying to assure the Trump administration that Ukraine was dedicated to peace.
“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” Mr. Zelensky wrote on X. “It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right.”
He was referring to an explosive meeting at the White House last week in which President Trump berated Mr. Zelensky and called him ungrateful. Mr. Trump followed up on Monday by announcing that he was pausing all U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader said he was ready to release Russian prisoners of war, stop long-range drone and missile strikes aimed at Russian targets, and declare a truce at sea immediately — moves that would help establish a pathway to peace.
Only, however, “if Russia will do the same,” he added.
Mr. Zelensky’s proposal seemed clearly designed to shift the burden for ending the war back to Russia, which launched its invasion three years ago. The White House has claimed that the Ukrainian leader is the main obstacle to peace, and on Monday halted all military assistance to pressure Kyiv.
He offered effusive praise for American support, noting specifically “the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins.”
“We are grateful for this,” he wrote. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” he added. “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”
There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin to Mr. Zelensky’s proposal. Despite the ferocity of the fighting, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has shown a willingness to do side deals with Ukraine. The two countries have conducted numerous prisoner-of-war exchanges, and Russia and Ukraine had been set to participate in talks in Qatar last August about halting strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure, but Russia pulled out of the meeting after Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
In recent weeks, however, Mr. Putin has offered no hint of being willing to de-escalate the war before winning major concessions from the West and Ukraine — like ruling out Ukrainian NATO membership, reducing the alliance’s footprint in Europe, limiting the size of Ukraine’s military, and giving Russia influence over Ukraine’s domestic politics.
“There is no evidence that Russia would be prepared to accept a deal, and what that would be,” said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general of the Royal United Services Institute, a research group in London. “Indeed this decision will encourage Putin to ask for more — including Ukrainian demilitarization and neutrality.”
Mr. Zelensky sought to strike a careful balance in his statement. Aware of Mr. Trump’s stated desire to get a quick deal, he said Ukraine was “ready to work fast to end the war.”
At the same time, he suggested a staged process, similar to the idea raised by the French government, that could start immediately.
“We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same,” he wrote. “Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal.”
His statement came as leaders in Kyiv assessed the political and military impact of the Trump administration’s decision to suspend aid, with military officials assessing how long Ukraine’s own stockpiles would last before the situation led to critical gaps on the front.
An emergency meeting in the Ukrainian Parliament was convened on Tuesday to assess the impact of the latest pressure from Trump administration while soldiers in the trenches woke up to the news that an already grueling war could get even more challenging, and brutal.
Mr. Zelensky did not comment directly on the aid suspension — which will affect more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition in the pipeline and on order — but he convened senior civilian and military leaders to discuss “special issues concerning our national resilience.”
In the streets and in the halls of Ukraine’s government on Tuesday, there were cries of betrayal at the American decision to pause the aid. Some Ukrainians passed around clips online of old speeches from previous American presidents vowing to stand by Ukraine, including offering protection in return for its decision to give up nuclear weapons under the Clinton administration.
But more than anger there was a sense of sadness and disbelief.
The first thing that came to mind upon hearing the news was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s phrase that “this date will go down in infamy,” Oleksandr Merezhko, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament, said in an interview. “It was a kind of Pearl Harbor, a political Pearl Harbor, for us.”
It is all the more painful, Mr. Merezhko said, “when it comes not from your enemy, but from whom you consider to be your friend.”
European leaders — who will convene in Brussels on Thursday to discuss both support for Kyiv and the urgent need for Europe to build up its own military capabilities — were quick to rush to Ukraine’s defense Tuesday morning.
Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, said: “This is Europe’s moment and we must live up to it.”
Appearing in Brussels, she proposed a new program that would make 150 billion euros in loans to member states to fund defense investment.
The Kremlin, not surprisingly, rejoiced at the suspension of aid.
“It’s obvious that the United States has been the main supplier of this war,” Dmitry S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told reporters. “If the U.S. stops those supplies, this will be the best contribution to peace, I think.”
However, some Ukrainians and Western military analysts said that rather than speeding the end of the war, the move could give Moscow even more incentive to keep fighting, since Mr. Trump is not applying any pressure on Russia to stop the war. They noted that it was Mr. Putin who started the war and whose army is on the offensive, albeit slowly.
The pause will halt the delivery of interceptor missiles for Patriot and NASAMS air defense systems, which have saved an untold number of lives as they provide the best shield for Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure from missile and drone attacks.
While military analysts and Ukrainian officials have said Kyiv is in a better position to sustain its war effort than it was in late 2023, when Congress suspended assistance for months, the move would have cascading effects that will grow with time.
A former official in the Biden administration said Ukraine had enough key munitions to last into the summer because of the surge in deliveries the U.S. made before President Biden left office — shipments that included artillery rounds, rockets and armored vehicles to Ukraine. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private arrangements.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Mr. Zelensky, said the country had weathered suspensions of U.S. military aid in the past and that Ukraine was engaging in a comprehensive audit of it stockpiles, “examining what we have, what can be produced through partnerships, and what can be replaced.”
Despite the increasing tension with the Trump administration, some Ukrainians held out hope that the relationship between Kyiv and Washington could be salvaged.
The Ukrainian parliament issued a statement directed at Mr. Trump, offering effusive praise and gratitude while imploring the administration to not abandon the country as it fights for its survival as an independent nation.
“We are convinced that the security and stable development of our nation are ensured by the unwavering support of the United States and reflect the values that have been the foundation of America’s historic success, inspiring millions of Ukrainians,” the lawmakers wrote.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said his government would do everything to maintain diplomatic ties with Washington and was prepared to sign an agreement granting America extraordinary access to Ukraine’s natural resources.
“This agreement has been approved by the government of Ukraine,” he said at a news conference. “We are ready to begin this cooperation at any moment.”
Ukraine worked diligently during the Biden administration to maintain bipartisan support in the U.S., hoping that courtship would influence Mr. Trump.
But soldiers and civilians alike have been bracing for this moment.
“Just as we start wearing them down, our weapons supplies get cut off,” said Jr. Lt. Oleh, a soldier fighting around Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine. Referring to the U.S., he added: “This has happened before. For some reason, they don’t want to let Russia lose this war.”
Reporting was contributed by Anton Troianovski, Robert Jimison, Liubov Sholudko, Kim Barker, Jeanna Smialek and Stephen Castle.
