DM Monitoring
BRUSSELS/KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has received the draft of a new US-backed plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine and expects to have talks with President Donald Trump in the coming days, Zelenskiy’s office said on Thursday.
Two sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Washington had signalled to Zelenskiy that Kyiv must accept the US-drafted framework to end the nearly four-year-old war, which includes territorial concessions and curbs on Ukraine’s armed forces.
European countries pushed back on Thursday against the plan, which sources said would require Kyiv to give up more land and partially disarm, conditions long seen by Ukraine’s allies as tantamount to capitulation.
“We are ready now, as before, to work constructively with the American side, as well as with our partners in Europe and around the world, so that the outcome is peace,” Zelenskiy’s office said in a statement on Telegram.
Zelenskiy’s talks with Trump would include discussion of the “key points required to achieve peace”, it said.
“The President of Ukraine outlined the fundamental principles that matter to our people, and following today’s meeting, the parties agreed to work on the plan’s provisions in a way that would bring about a just end to the war.”
Trump and Zelenskiy clashed in front of television cameras in a disastrous meeting for the Ukrainian leader at the White House in March, but talks went more smoothly when he visited the White House this summer.
Video shows Russian soldiers in Pokrovsk
The acceleration in US diplomacy comes at an awkward time for Kyiv, with its troops on the back foot on the battlefield and Zelenskiy’s government undermined by a corruption scandal. Parliament fired two cabinet ministers on Wednesday.
Moscow played down any new US initiative.
“Consultations are not currently underway. There are contacts, of course, but there is no process that could be called consultations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
He said Russia had nothing to add beyond the position President Vladimir Putin laid out at a summit with US President Donald Trump in August, adding that any peace deal must address the “root causes of the conflict”, a phrase Moscow has long used to refer to its demands.
With another winter approaching in the nearly four-year-old war, Russian troops occupy almost one-fifth of Ukraine and are poised to capture their first substantial city in nearly two years — the ruined eastern railway hub of Pokrovsk.
Video footage released by Russia’s defence ministry on Thursday showed its troops moving freely through the southern part of Pokrovsk, patrolling deserted streets lined with charred apartment blocks.
‘Peace cannot be capitulation,’ says France
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels did not comment in detail about the US plan, which has not been made public, but indicated they would not accept demands for Kyiv to make punishing concessions.
“Ukrainians want peace – a just peace that respects everyone’s sovereignty, a durable peace that can’t be called into question by future aggression,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot. “But peace cannot be a capitulation.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said US special envoy Steve Witkoff had, during a phone call on Thursday, underlined “the importance of close coordination with Germany and our European partners” in talks to end the war.
The White House has not commented on the reported proposals. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that Washington would “continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict”.
“…Achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions,” Rubio said.
A US Army delegation, led by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and the Army’s Chief of Staff Randy George, was in Kyiv and expected to meet Zelenskiy late on Thursday.
They met Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi late on Wednesday. Syrskyi said the best way to secure a just peace was to defend Ukraine’s airspace, extend its ability to strike deep into Russia and stabilise the front line.
