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Ukraine has offered to purchase $100 billion in American weapons financed by Europe and strike a $50 billion drone production deal with the United States in exchange for security guarantees following a peace settlement with Russia, according to documents seen and reported by the Financial Times (FT) on Tuesday.
The proposals were shared with European allies ahead of Monday's White House meeting between President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, according to four people familiar with the matter cited by the FT.
Ukraine's pitch, detailed in talking points distributed at the meeting, aims to appeal to Trump's emphasis on benefiting American industry. When asked Monday about further U.S. military aid for Ukraine, Trump said: "We're not giving anything. We're selling weapons."
The document reiterates that Ukraine will not accept any deal including territorial concessions to Russia and insists on a ceasefire as the first step toward a full peace agreement.
"A lasting peace shall be based not on concessions and free gifts to Putin, but on [a] strong security framework that will prevent future aggression," the document states.
Ukraine specifically rejects the proposal Russian President Vladimir Putin made to Trump during their August 15 meeting in Alaska to freeze the frontline if Ukraine withdraws troops from the partly occupied eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The document warns this would create "a foothold for a further and rapid advance of Russian forces towards the city of Dnipro" and enable Putin to "achieve the goals of aggression by other means."
While the document does not specify which weapons Ukraine wants to procure, Kyiv has been clear about its desire to buy at least 10 U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to protect cities and critical infrastructure, along with other missiles and equipment, FT reported.
The $50 billion drone deal would involve production agreements with Ukrainian companies that have pioneered the technology since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. The document does not specify how much would be procurement versus investment.
The financing for the weapons purchases would be provided by Europe, with Ukraine committing to these purchases in exchange for U.S.-provided guarantees after peace with Russia is achieved.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Zelenskyy did not directly reject the idea of territorial exchange during his meeting with Trump, citing unnamed officials familiar with the matter.
According to these officials, Zelenskyy "pointed to the difficulty of population displacement and that the Ukrainian Constitution does not allow territorial surrender." The officials claimed Zelenskyy then raised the option of a "proportional exchange" during the discussion.
European leaders explained Ukraine's territorial losses "in a way Trump could understand," with Russia's demand for the entire Donbas region being compared to asking the United States to surrender Trump's home state, the officials told WSJ.
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