Russia gives assets to the USA and Trump in return pressures Ukraine to accept Russian demands

From the Obozrevatel:

"Trump's ultimatum to Zelensky: will Ukraine survive and what factor will be able to put everything in its place. Interview with Bessmertny 

Roman Pryadun, 11.12.2025 

...Donald Trump's peace plan, touted in Washington as "the only chance to stop the war," increasingly resembles an ultimatum to Kyiv. According to Axios and the Financial Times, the US is increasingly demanding that Volodymyr Zelenskyy agree to terms that include significant territorial concessions, primarily in the Donbas... Trump publicly expresses dissatisfaction with Zelensky, declaring that "the Russians agree, but the Ukrainian president hasn't even read the proposal." A new line of pressure is being added to the demands regarding Donbas: holding elections amidst war. The main question hangs in the air: will Ukraine withstand the pressure if the White House finally decides to make "fast peace" its main foreign policy achievement? Ukrainian diplomat and politician Roman Bessmertny shared his thoughts on these and other issues in an exclusive interview with OBOZ.UA.

- After several weeks of intensive diplomatic negotiations, Ukrainians still believe that some aspects of the current US plan favor Moscow, while the US is exerting significant pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Witkoff and Kushner actually wanted the Ukrainian president to agree to surrender Donbas over the phone. The Financial Times reports that Trump gave Volodymyr Zelenskyy "several days" to agree to the peace plan. Let's start with this "American peace invasion": why is Trump fussing and issuing such orders?

He's fussing for a simple reason: whenever there's any dialogue between Moscow and Washington, there are always some perks for Russia. And the latest, which for some reason is being kept almost silent, is that, as part of that "28-point game," Moscow paid off its assets in Kazakhstan. This was only noticed when the Americans had already begun to take over the administrative management of these assets. This is a very significant thing. There hasn't been a dialogue after which Moscow hasn't taken some step: the transfer of shares, assets, the release of seizure orders, the transfer of balance sheets. As we predicted before the last round, the discussion turned to Nord Stream, Turkish Stream, and assets in Kazakhstan, some of which were transferred. This is what's pushing Trump to take action. He has no other motives. All his talk about being "sorry that people are dying" is empty. Trump masks his true nature behind endless maxims.

 

What is Russia doing? Note the phrase from the Kremlin: "We are awaiting the results of the conversation between Washington and Kyiv." This translates simply as: to what extent will Trump "pass the test" and pay for the payment Russia has made? All of Putin's emotional threats, all this "we will get what we want" pathos, are empty. This war has been going on for a long time, Europeans have accepted it, and they understand both the prospects and the reality perfectly well. The reality is this: if Europe takes a position with Ukraine—and it's already clear that they will, after the leaked phone conversations and all these US national security strategies—Trump's arguments will crumble by the hour. 

Therefore, anything will be signed only when Ukraine deems it possible. Under the current circumstances, that's unacceptable. And the main argument here isn't Ukraine's position, but that Russia's options include no ceasefire, no reconciliation, no agreement, not even a desire to negotiate anything. Kyiv, Brussels, and European capitals understand this perfectly well.

 

- Don't Americans understand this? Or are they simply unwilling to acknowledge the obvious?

 

The problem is that the money motive trumps everything else. Profiting from these schemes is what matters to Trump. He doesn't think in terms of values, but in terms of interests. And those interests amount to billions...

 

Moscow, however, is trying to stop the process: through Russian assets in Kazakhstan, they have effectively blocked the transfer of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. Trump is now expressing dissatisfaction that the assets are insufficient compensation for the missiles not being transferred to Ukraine. Ukraine and Europe should have responded more quickly, but it's important not to offer frozen assets or raw materials. Everyone saw how the topic of the US-Ukraine rare earths agreement quickly disappeared from the radar..."