20 November 2025
Ukrainian lawmaker tells DW peace plan ‘looks like surrender’
Oleksiy Goncharenko of Ukraine’s opposition European Solidarity party told DW that reports of a possible peace plan to end the conflict in Ukraine sound “like surrender.”
The lawmaker dismissed reports of a plan allegedly negotiated between the United States and Russia that would have required Kiev to cede land controlled by the Russian military and cut the size of its military by more than half, calling it disinformation by Moscow.
“The main guarantee for Ukraine, like any other country, [is] It has its own armed forces,” he said. “This is exactly what Russia wants – to reduce Ukraine’s armed forces in order to annihilate Ukraine in the next attack.”
Goncharenko said he did not believe the US would “press Ukraine to surrender because it is in the interests of neither Ukraine nor the United States.”
“I really want to thank the President [Donald] “Trump is grateful for his efforts to achieve peace, but to achieve peace, this agreement must also be in Ukraine’s best interests, and I think he realizes that,” he said.
The news of talks between the US and Russia on an apparent peace plan comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky faces his biggest domestic crisis in years, with his close associates under investigation for a major criminal plot and two ministers resigning.
“Zelensky is definitely vulnerable because of the scandal at home and overall it’s a bad story,” Goncharenko said.
He said that any deal would not have to be accepted by Zelensky alone, but by the entire Ukrainian society.
He said, “If we want to make a compromise, Ukrainian society must accept it. There are some things that are acceptable to Ukrainian society; there are some things that are not.”