Five hours after his conversation with Putin, Zelensky's phone rang: "Volodymyr…"

According to them, Kyiv is being asked to agree to territorial losses and other significant concessions, while at the same time not receiving firm security guarantees.

The Ukrainian side believes that the current U.S. proposal benefits Moscow in key areas and that Washington is putting significantly more pressure on Zelensky than on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

• Alarming: Is Trump abandoning efforts to end the war in Ukraine?
• Kyev: No!

A U.S. official told Axios that this is not true and that the United States is equally pressuring Putin to soften his demands.

Meanwhile, this week Zelensky is speaking with a number of the most influential European officials, who are telling him that Ukraine does not have to yield to either Putin or Trump.

At the center of the negotiations are two issues: Russia’s demand that Ukraine hand over the entire Donbas region, including areas not controlled by Russian forces, and Ukraine’s demand for strong U.S. security guarantees to prevent new Russian aggression.

A Ukrainian official speaking on condition of anonymity said that the U.S. offer further worsened from Kyiv’s perspective after Trump advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a five-hour meeting with Putin in the Kremlin last week.

According to him, Witkoff and Kushner then spoke with Zelensky by phone for two hours, and during that conversation on Saturday, they expected a clear and quick agreement to the plan.

• Zelensky confirmed: There is no agreement

“We had the impression that the U.S. is trying in various ways to sell us Russia’s desire to take over the entire Donbas, and that the Americans want Zelensky to agree to it immediately during the phone call,” the Ukrainian official said.