Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a senior Russian official offered guarded reactions to President Donald Trump's proposal to end Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Speaking in his nightly address on Nov. 20, Zelenskyy said that American military officials currently in Ukraine had presented "their vision" for securing a peace deal and that his country was carefully studying the proposals.

"From the first days of the war, we have upheld one very simple position: Ukraine needs peace. A real peace − one not broken by a third invasion," Zelenskyy said, adding that he expected to speak with Trump in the coming days.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov downplayed the initiative, saying it was not clear whether Zelenskyy's administration was willing to negotiate with his country based on the Trump plan.

"Consultations are not currently under way. There are contacts, of course, but there is no process that could be called consultations," Peskov wrote in his Telegram channel on Nov. 21.

According to a leaked draft of the plan, Ukraine would be required to give up areas of eastern Ukraine that it still controls, recognize the Crimea peninsula on the Black Sea as Russian, cut the size of its army and pledge not to join the NATO military alliance. Ukraine has repeatedly characterized all of these Russian demands as red lines.

Russia launched its war in Ukraine in 2014, when it occupied Crimea. A full-scale invasion of Ukraine followed in 2022. Russia now controls about 20 percent of Ukraine's territory.

An estimated 3.5 million Ukrainians live under Russian occupation.

The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based military affairs research institute, assessed that there are no provisions in the draft peace plan in which Russia makes any concessions. "ISW continues to assess that accepting Russian demands would set conditions for renewed Russian aggression against Ukraine," the institute said.

According to the White House, the plan was drawn up with direct input from Russia and Ukraine.

But Rustem Umerov, a senior Zelenskyy adviser cited by Axios as having spoken to Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff about the proposal, said Ukraine was only involved at a "technical" level.

Umerov said he did not offer any assessments about whether the plan would be acceptable to Ukraine.

The plan appeared to catch European officials by surprise, with some senior officials across the region saying they were not involved in helping to draft it. Nor were they briefed on it ahead of its leak.

The plan also came under criticism from backers of Ukraine, including from some aligned politically with Trump.

"Any 'peace' agreement between Ukraine and Russia which weakens Ukraine’s ability to defend itself is in fact a surrender agreement," Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich wrote on social media.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine and Russia give guarded responses to Trump peace plan

Reporting by Kim Hjelmgaard and Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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