Ukraine's Zelensky pushes back on US peace plan

Putin on Saturday announced a 30-hour cease-fire, but Zelensky said Russians never fully stopped their attacks

- Ian Lovett, Jane Lytvynenko & Benoit Faucon

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back on a U.S. proposal to recognize Russia's control of Crimea as part of a cease-fire agreement, throwing into doubt President Trump's efforts to bring an end to the war.

"Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea," Zelensky said at a press conference here on Tuesday. "There's nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution."

Zelensky said Russia should agree to a cease-fire before further talks to demonstrate "serious steps, and not childishness." He said that Ukrainian officials meeting with U.S. and European officials in London would have a mandate to discuss a partial or full cease-fire, which Ukraine agreed to last month but Moscow rejected.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday announced a unilateral 30-hour Easter cease-fire, but Zelensky said the Russians never fully stopped their attacks.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Russia later this week to continue discussions to end the war in Ukraine.

"Negotiations continue," Leavitt said. "We feel we're hopefully moving in the right direction."

Zelensky has tried to keep the U.S. on Ukraine's side, while also pushing them to be skeptical about Putin's claims to want peace—a line he hasn't always walked successfully.

After a disastrous meeting in the Oval Office in February, Trump briefly cut off military aid to Ukraine, calling Zelensky insufficiently grateful for the help the U.S. had already given his country.

In recent days, American officials had floated the idea of formally acknowledging Russian control of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula seized by Russia's military in 2014, while freezing the conflict along current lines. It couldn't be established whether the idea was for the U.S. to recognize Russia's hold on Crimea, or for Ukraine to do so as well.