Ukraine and its allies have agreed to work together over the next 10 days to draw up a ceasefire plan, President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Axios website after Donald Trump proposed implementing a ceasefire on the current front lines.

“A few points in brief. As a ceasefire plan. We decided to work on it in the next week or ten days,” the Ukrainian president says in an interview published today by Axios.

Volodymyr Zelensky added that Ukraine – aiming to put pressure on Russia for talks – is asking the US government not only for Tomahawk missiles, but “similar” weapons systems that do not require long-term training.

On sanctions, Ukraine’s president said they would have a substantial impact on Russia, but his country still needs long-range missiles to force Vladimir Putin to move forward with peace talks.

Zelensky described the past two weeks as “tumultuous”, as his initial meeting with Trump on October 17, during which the US president refused to approve the Tomahawk missile shipment, turned into an abrupt diplomatic reversal. Trump cancelled the meeting with Putin and announced the first sanctions against Russia in his second term.

“President Trump is concerned about the escalation. But I think if there are no negotiations, escalation will come anyway. If Putin doesn’t stop, something has to stop him. Sanctions are one such weapon, but we also need long-range missiles,” he said.

The White House meeting included heated discussions about the terms of a possible peace deal and the Ukrainian desire for Tomahawks. Zelensky called it “constructive”, though “difficult”. “My talks with President Trump were about pressure on Russia. I think he wanted to put pressure on them, but without closing the window for diplomacy,” he said.

The Ukrainian leader revealed that he accepted Trump’s proposal to freeze the front lines as a basis for negotiations. “I think we understood each other,” he said. “President Trump said we should freeze the current situation and talk.” However, after Putin’s refusal to back down and Foreign Minister Marco Rubio’s failed communication with his Russian counterpart, Trump reversed course, canceled the summit and imposed sanctions.

“As far as I know, the conversation between Rubio and Lavrov was not positive. This is the third or fourth time Putin and his people have rejected what Trump says,” Zelensky claimed, adding that Dmitry Medvedev reacted with “bellicose rhetoric” and Russian state media was filled with “anti-American and anti-Trump comments.” According to him, Ukraine estimates that new US sanctions against Russian oil companies could reduce oil exports by up to 50%, causing losses of $5 billion a month.

Zelensky expressed hope that “secondary sanctions” and “parallel moves by Congress” would follow. He also reiterated that the only way to bring Putin to serious negotiations is to give Ukraine the ability to strike military and energy targets inside Russia. “I told President Trump that we won’t even have to use the missiles right away. If Putin knows that his energy facilities are at risk, then he will talk,” he claimed, adding: “We’re not just talking about Tomahawks. The US has many similar systems that do not require extensive training. The only way to work with Putin is through pressure.”

After the Trump-Zelensky meeting, British Prime Minister Kir Starmers suggested that a peace plan along the lines of the Gaza initiative should be promoted. Zelensky discussed the proposal with Starmer and other European leaders, explaining that although the situation in Ukraine is different, he is willing to cooperate. “The plan should be short, without too many details. Some basic points, like a ceasefire plan. We decided to work on it in the next week or ten days,” he said, but expressed skepticism that Putin would accept any peace proposal.

Responding to claims that Russia was making progress on the front, Zelensky countered that “nobody is winning on the battlefield right now” and argued that Ukrainian intelligence has evidence that Putin failed to take Donbass by October 15 as promised to his allies. “Russia cannot do it. It doesn’t have enough personnel. Its powerful battalions have been destroyed. Today on the battlefield, we remain in almost the same positions as in the last two or three months,” he added, noting that Russian losses in 2025 amount to about 346,000 dead and wounded.

On Saturday night, White House envoy Steve Whitcoff met in Miami with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev to discuss the diplomatic impasse, with another meeting taking place on Sunday.

Trump is expected to meet this week in South Korea with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Zelensky expressed hope that the meeting would lead to a commitment from Beijing to limit purchases of Russian oil as part of a broader trade deal with the US. “I think President Trump’s conversation with President Xi is very important. The strongest step would be if India and China stop buying energy from Russia, especially oil,” he said. So far, Beijing has strongly criticized U.S. sanctions and has shown no inclination to cut Moscow out of its energy ties.