On Air Force One, a Deadline Melts — and War Rages Below
They say crisis sharpens will; sometimes it simply blurs deadlines. On a gray morning above the Atlantic, with turkey on the mind and an insoluble war on his desk, US President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the hard line he’d set for Ukraine — a Thanksgiving deadline to accept a US-backed peace blueprint — was no longer carved in stone.
“The deadline for me is when it’s over,” he said, voice loose as the clouds beneath the aircraft. His remark was at once casual and consequential: a president publicly turning away from a calendar moment he had previously elevated to geopolitical significance.
The Players and the Puzzle
The drama centers on an unlikely cast. At its core is Steve Witkoff, the US negotiator now slated to fly to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin. Alongside him, according to the White House, may be Jared Kushner — the president’s son-in-law who played a discreet role in brokering a fragile Gaza ceasefire.
From Geneva to Abu Dhabi, from conference rooms to Kremlin antechambers, diplomats have been racing to rewrite a plan that many feared privileged Moscow’s demands and diminished Ukraine’s sovereignty. What began as a 28-point outline — widely reported to include prohibitions on Ukraine joining NATO and the surrender of territory to Russia — has, according to US officials, been revised to better reflect Kyiv’s interests. An insider briefed on the latest draft told AFP the new version was “significantly better.”
Where talks stand
Details remain thin. Officials say progress has been made; one U.S. spokesman called discussions “optimistic.” Paris, however, injected a cool realism. French President Emmanuel Macron warned publicly that there was “clearly no Russian willingness” for a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin confirmed Witkoff’s visit — and, in a reminder that diplomacy in this conflict is always a theatre, said he would arrive next week with other US officials. Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Putin, told Russian television that “a preliminary agreement has been reached” on the scheduling.
Negotiation by Telephone — and the Muddled Messaging
Bloomberg reported that on 14 October Witkoff had a phone call with Ushakov in which he urged Moscow to coordinate on a ceasefire plan and push Mr. Putin to raise it with Mr. Trump. That call, the outlet said, also discussed arranging a Trump–Putin call before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House visit that week.
Mr. Trump, when asked about that reporting, shrugged. “That’s what a dealmaker does,” he said. “Very standard negotiation.” It’s a shrug that unsettles many in Kyiv. “Deals at 30,000 feet rarely feel like protection on the ground,” said Olena, 36, who runs a small café in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district and spent the week tending to customers nervous about air-raid sirens.
On the Ground: Smoke, Sirens, and a City That Keeps Counting
Because while suits shuffle papers, rockets keep falling. The war that exploded on 24 February 2022 continues to scar landscapes and lives. This month’s Russian missile and drone strikes battered Kyiv in the dead of night — powerful explosions around 1am, fires in apartment blocks, and officials reporting seven people killed. Zaporizhzhia endured a major attack that damaged at least seven high-rise buildings and left a dozen hospitalized.
In the Pechersk district of Kyiv, residents emerging from basements after dawn described a scene of shattered balconies and soot-streaked facades. “You wake up with the taste of smoke and the reflex to check your phone for ‘all clear,’” said Mykhailo, a retired schoolteacher who has spent the war keeping an eye on his building’s elderly tenants. “It never feels like the negotiations up in palaces understand that.”
What’s actually on the table?
We know some of the specifics that worried Kyiv and Europe. The initial US-authored framework reportedly capped Ukraine’s future military manpower at 600,000 — a figure raised in later drafts to 800,000, according to a source familiar with the revisions. It also included clauses that many read as curtailing Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic options. Those points sparked alarm and forced a diplomatic re-think.
“Any settlement that ignores the right of a sovereign nation to choose its alliances is not a peace built to last,” said a senior analyst at a European think tank who asked not to be named. “You cannot trade the future security of a people for a short-term press release.”
Stakeholders and Stakes
- Diplomats: US negotiators, Russian aides, Ukrainian representatives, European allies and a cohort of 30 supportive countries meeting remotely.
- Locales: Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Geneva, Abu Dhabi, and soon, perhaps, Moscow.
- What’s at risk: territory, security guarantees, Ukraine’s ability to join defense alliances, and the long-term stability of European order.
Voices From All Sides
Not everyone agrees that a deal — even a rapid one — would be a betrayal. “If a pause in the fighting can save civilian lives, open corridors for aid and protect nuclear facilities, we owe it to people to test the option,” an EU foreign policy adviser said. “But a pause is not a peace if it freezes Russian gains.”
In Kyiv, opinions are split and raw. “We don’t want to be abandoned on a map,” said Kateryna, who fled easternmost fighting zones and now volunteers at a shelter. “But we are tired. Every day of war costs our future.”
Why This Matters Beyond Borders
What unfolds in these negotiations is about more than territory. It is a test of how democracies balance realpolitik with principles — of whether allied capitals can project a consistent stance while still pressing for an end to bloodshed. It is also a reminder that modern wars are fought not just on the ground but in the airwaves and the inboxes: leaks, recordings, and social media posts now shape diplomacy as much as closed-door conversations.
Ask yourself: would you prefer an imperfect ceasefire that pauses the killing today, or a protracted fight that might preserve long-term rights but carries an unending humanitarian toll? There is no answer that doesn’t carry cost.
What Comes Next?
In the near term, watch these markers: Witkoff’s Moscow visit and whether Kushner accompanies him; whether a Trump–Putin call is arranged; the response from Kyiv to any proposed terms; and, crucially, whether the strikes continue even as diplomats speak.
Longer-term, the outcome will speak to the changing contours of global diplomacy — where private businessmen become envoys, where unconventional actors bridge conflicts, and where the balance between expediency and principle is negotiated in plain sight.
For Ukrainians living under the drone hum and the quiet of rationed hope, the talking will go on. For the rest of the world watching, the question remains — can a peace plan be both quick and just, or does haste always carry the seeds of future conflict?
Whatever happens next, the cities counting ruins and the families counting loved ones are unlikely to accept words without security. For now, the clock has been put back in the pocket, but the war’s percussion continues to set the rhythm.
