Ukraine risks losing key partner or its dignity, warns Zelenskyy, as Trump sets Thanksgiving deadline to accept deal – Europe live | Europe

• EU leaders have insisted that Ukraine must have a central role in deciding its future and said European leaders would hold discussions on the US-drafted proposal on Saturday. “We are clear that there should be nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president António Costa said in a statement on X after talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “As next steps, European leaders will meet tomorrow in the margins of G20 and then in Angola at the EU-AU meeting” next week, they added. Reuters also reported that France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot would host a call with counterparts from Germany, Poland, Britain, Finland, and Italy, as well as the European Union foreign policy chief, on Friday evening to discuss the situation.

• Vladimir Putin said that Moscow had received the US proposals for peace in Ukraine and that he believed the plan could be “used as the basis for a final peaceful settlement”. The Russian president said that neither Kyiv nor European powers understood the reality that Russian forces were advancing in Ukraine and would continue to advance unless there was peace.

• Donald Trump said in a radio interview that he thinks Thanksgiving, which is this coming Thursday, is an appropriate deadline for Ukraine to accept a US-backed peace proposal to end Russia’s war in the country. “I’ve had a lot of deadlines, but if things are working well, you tend to extend the deadlines. But Thursday is we think is an appropriate time,” the US president told Fox News Radio’s The Brian Kilmeade Show.

• The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his nation was facing “one of the most difficult moments in history” after being presented with a 28-point peace plan drafted by the US, which pressured Kyiv to end the war in the country and concede territory to Russia. In a 10-minute address to the nation, Zelenskyy warned Ukrainians they were facing the pressure of either losing a key partner, the US, or dealing with “an extremely difficult” winter ahead.

• Zelenskyy warned that Ukraine is facing “one of the most difficult moments of its history,” and a choice “of losing a major partner [in the US] or Ukraine’s dignity.” The president stressed he will not betray Ukraine’s national interest and will seek to work “constructively” with the US to amend the proposed deal, so Russia cannot argue that Kyiv does not want peace.

• Zelenskyy also pointedly noted the support he receives from European partners, who he says understand “that Russia is not far away … and Ukraine is the only shield separating comfortable European life from Putin’s plans [of aggression].” He said he appreciates the praise for the heroic Ukrainian nation as they fight against the Russian invasion, but said that Ukrainians are under unimaginable pressure as daily attacks continue.

• After a phone call with US vice-president JD Vance, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would work with the USand Europe at an advisor level to work towards a peace plan. “We agreed to work together with the US and Europe at the level of national security advisors to make the path to peace truly doable,” he said on X after the nearly hour-long call.

• UN chief António Guterres insisted that any peace plan for Ukraine must “abide” by UN resolutions upholding the country’s “territorial integrity,” AFP reported. “We are talking about something that is in the press that was never presented formally by the United States or by any other entity,” Guterres told a news conference in Johannesburg ahead of a G20 summit.

• EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that “for any peace to be sustainable, it has to have certain elements” to meet all parties’ expectations. “If you just give in to the aggression, then you invite for more aggression and this is dangerous,” she says.

• The Kremlin said that Ukraine should enter negotiations on ending the war “now” or face the prospect of losing more territory. “The effective work of the Russian armed forces should convince Zelensky: it is better to negotiate and do it now rather than later,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

• German foreign minister Johann Wadephul told journalists that the 28-point proposal on Ukraine was “not a real plan” with so many details still needing further work. “From my point of view, it is not a real plan, but simply a list of topics,” Johann Wadephul told journalists in Brussels.

• The European Union has imposed sanctions against Russian prison officials responsible for the death of the Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna. Roshchyna was reporting on Russia’s systematic policy of extrajudicial detention and torture in occupied parts of Ukraine, before falling victim to it herself.

That’s all our live coverage for today, thank you so much for reading along. I’ll leave you with my colleagues’ very thorough report on the dilemma faced by President Zelenskyy and reaction to the US-drafted 28-point plan: