- November 20, 2025
- 12:19 pm
- World News
Sometimes the fate of an entire country fits into a document of a few pages. In November 2025, this document became a 28-point “peace settlement” plan, which, according to American media reports, Donald Trump’s team prepared as a basis for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
On paper, everything looks neat: ceasefire, line of control, negotiations later.
But if you listen to the details, it becomes clear: it’s not about peace, but about silence that they want to pass off as peace.
And Ukraine feels this intuitively — like a person who once trusted promises and then stood under shelling.
War as a backdrop for offering a “compromise”
For the third year, Ukrainian cities live with sirens instead of bells. People have learned to distinguish types of explosions as accurately as they once distinguished the weather forecast.
And at this very moment, when winter once again pulls the front to the north and east, the American political scene offers a proposal that one would like to call “peace,” but turns out to be a “pause.”
Trump’s plan became the news of the day — but not a news of hope.
What exactly is being offered to Ukraine
The known provisions today look like this:
1. Fixing the actual line of control.
That is — recognition that the occupied territories remain under Russia at least until the “next negotiations.”
2. Donbas — outside the framework of return “at this stage.”
In fact — loss of regions in exchange for a pause.
3. Crimea is excluded from discussion.
The issue is simply removed from the formula.
4. Ukraine must abandon its course towards NATO.
This is a blow not to politics — but to the survival strategy.
5. Security guarantees — vague, without a mechanism.
Promises instead of protection.
A new alarming layer: language and the ROC — as topics that “accidentally” start to appear
There is another detail that Washington does not voice, but it is increasingly mentioned by some media and analytical platforms — especially those read in Moscow.
And it concerns two extremely sensitive topics:
the status of the Russian language,
the position of the ROC and UOC MP in Ukraine.
These points are not included in the published or leaked versions of the 28-point document.
However, several publications present information as if these topics may appear in a “humanitarian package” taken outside the main agreement, as the next stage of negotiations.
The presentation is soft — “rights to the native language,” “guarantees of religious freedom,” “consideration of the interests of Russian-speaking citizens” — but anyone familiar with Russian diplomacy understands:
it is under such formulations that Moscow has been trying for many years to push for the return of ROC influence and the elevation of the status of the Russian language.
In some publications, it is presented as if the issue of language and the ROC is not part of the main plan, but “may be included later,” if Kyiv agrees to major territorial concessions.
Ukraine sees this as a direct repetition of the logic of “Minsk”:
first — the front line,
then — political demands,
and only then — an attempt to integrate language, church, amnesty for collaborators, and special statuses into mandatory points.
This is why any hints at the Russian language and the ROC cause such a strong reaction:
Ukraine understands that territorial concession may lead to pressure on these issues — “in the package.”
Why this causes anxiety
In Kyiv, they understand perfectly: a pause is not peace.
A fragile agreement is not protection.
And a country that has survived 2022–2025 cannot afford the luxury of trust.
The Institute for the Study of War warns:
such a plan does not end the war — it postpones it, giving Russia time to restore the army, restart missile production, and mobilization cycles.
Ukraine has already gone through this.
And the lesson was too painful to repeat.
A pause is sometimes a breath before a blow
Politics loves the word “compromise.”
But compromise is possible between equals.
In the proposed plan, Ukraine receives obligations,
and Russia — a window of opportunity.
Moscow gives nothing in return — neither territories, nor guarantees, nor cessation of attacks.
A peace built on concessions to the aggressor always becomes just a warm-up before a new war.
This applies to both military points and “soft” ones — language, church, cultural statuses.
The politics of fatigue: when they want to “turn off” the war, not solve it
There is a feeling that the world has become comfortable not solving the conflict, but simply lowering the volume of news about it.
Western fatigue is real.
The change of power in the USA is real.
And the desire to check the box “peace process started” — too.
But Ukraine cannot live by the cycles of someone else’s election calendar.
For it, any “compromise” is someone’s homes, families, and future.
Geopolitics after 2022
The world has long ceased to be the same.
Ukraine has proven that even a country without large resources can hold the front against a large military machine.
This reality does not align with formulas where the aggressor is given a pause, and the victim — conditions.
If Trump’s plan implies fixing territories for Russia, abandoning NATO, and a possible “humanitarian package,” then this is not peace — it is an attempt to rewrite the rules of international security.
What will happen next: two scenarios
Scenario 1: Ukraine agrees to the plan
Loses territories.
Faces the threat of a new offensive in 1–2 years.
Opens the door to Moscow’s ideological demands.
In fact — fixes a weak peace that will not hold.
Scenario 2: Ukraine refuses
The war continues.
The USA may exert pressure.
Russia strengthens arms production.
But Ukraine retains subjectivity and strategic line.
It is in the second scenario that the country has a chance to preserve the future, not just the present.
Peace must be honest, otherwise it collapses
28 points — not a recipe for peace.
This is a document written in the logic of “let’s dim the conflict,” but not in the logic of justice.
Ukraine has long learned: peace is impossible if it does not take into account the truth.
And the truth here is simple:
— you cannot exchange territory for a promise;
— you cannot let the Kremlin into the cultural field through “language rights”;
— you cannot return ROC influence under the guise of “religious guarantees”;
— you cannot leave the aggressor space for the next strike.
Peace is not a pause.
Peace is when the threat disappears, not postponed.
Ukraine knows this all too well.