Trump's "final offer" for peace requires Ukraine to accept Russian occupation

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Agree a peace deal or US will walk away, Vance tells Ukraine and Russia

US vice-president JD Vance warned Wednesday that Moscow and Kyiv must strike a deal or Washington will end its efforts to reach a ceasefire.

“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes, or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Vance told reporters in India, where he is on a four-day visit.
...
“It’s now time, I think, to take, if not the final step, one of the final steps, which is, at a broad level, the party saying we’re going to stop the killing, we’re going to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today,” Vance added.

“Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own,” he added.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/apr/23/russia-ukraine-war-live-london-peace-talks-macron-starmer-zelenskyy-putin-latest-news-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6808d1148f0864f4ce48210a#block-6808d1148f0864f4ce48210a

"Both ... give up some of the territory they currently own" is doing a lot of work there. Vance/Trump/whoever is not asking Russia to "give up" a single bit of Russia as internationally recognised; the only movement of the front line towards Russia mentioned is "the return of the small part of Kharkiv oblast Russia has occupied", which is, of course, not "owned". Russia get to control everything else it has invaded, and gets US recognition of Crimea as part of Russia.

I presume "walk away from this process" is a threat to withdraw all US military support from Ukraine. Because if it was just "the US won't try and make a deal anymore", it wouldn't be much of a threat, would it? More like a relief that the biased and out-of-their-depth US "negotiators" would stop wasting people's time.