President Volodimir Zelensky has received a draft plan from the United States to end the war in Ukraine and hopes to speak with US President Donald Trump in the coming days, the Ukrainian leader’s office said on Thursday.
Two sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Washington had signaled to Zelensky that Kiev must accept the US-drafted framework to end the nearly four-year war, which includes territorial concessions and restrictions on Ukraine’s armed forces.
European countries resist the plan, which sources say would require Kiev to cede more land and partially disarm, conditions seen by Ukraine’s allies as tantamount to capitulation.
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Zelensky’s office did not comment directly on the content of the plan, which has not been published, but said the Ukrainian leader had ‘outlined the fundamental principles that matter to our people’.
“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,” he said in a statement.
‘In the coming days, the President of Ukraine looks forward to discussing with President Trump existing diplomatic opportunities and key points needed to achieve peace.’
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Trump and Zelensky traded barbs before television cameras in a disastrous meeting for the Ukrainian leader at the White House in March, but conversations were calmer when he visited the White House this summer.
difficult moment
The acceleration of US diplomacy comes at a difficult time for Kiev, with its troops outnumbered on the battlefield and Zelensky’s government hampered by a corruption scandal. Parliament dismissed two cabinet ministers on Wednesday.
Moscow has played down any new US initiatives.
‘Consultations are not ongoing at this time. There are contacts, of course, but there is no process that could be called consultations,’ said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
According to him, Russia has nothing to add beyond the position already expressed by President Vladimir Putin at an August summit with US President Donald Trump, adding that any peace agreement must address the ‘fundamental causes of the conflict’, a phrase Moscow has used to refer to its demands.
As another winter approaches in the nearly four-year war, Russian troops occupy nearly a fifth of Ukraine and are poised to capture its first major city in nearly two years — the ruined railway hub of Pokrovsk in the east of the country.
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Video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday shows soldiers moving freely through the southern part of Pokrovsk, patrolling deserted streets lined with charred apartment blocks.
Capitulation
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels did not comment in detail on the US plan, but indicated they would not accept demands for punitive concessions from Kiev.
‘Ukrainians want peace — a just peace that respects everyone’s sovereignty, a lasting peace that cannot be questioned by future aggression,’ said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot. ‘But peace cannot be a capitulation.’
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Day X that Washington ‘must continue to develop a list of potential ideas to end this war based on input from both sides of the conflict’.
“Achieving lasting 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 Army Chief of Staff Randy George, is in Kiev and expected to meet with Zelensky.
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