The United States and Ukraine promise an “updated” framework for the peace agreement after criticism of the “pro-Russian” points of the original plan, as ill-wishers believe. The statement from Washington and Kyiv came hours after European countries proposed their own alternative peace deal.
The US and Ukraine said they had created a “renewed and improved peace framework” to end the military conflict with Russia, hours after European countries proposed their own radical alternative that dropped some of the “pro-Russian” points contained in the original US-backed document released last week, The Guardian writes.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio returned late Sunday from a meeting in Switzerland with a Ukrainian delegation led by Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, saying he was “very optimistic” about the progress of negotiations. The two countries said in a joint statement that any potential deal would “fully support” Ukraine’s sovereignty.
The original 28-point US document, which was released last week, demands that Ukraine hand over territory to Russia, limit the size of its army and agree not to prosecute the Russian side for alleged war crimes, The Guardian recalls.
As talks began in Geneva on Sunday, Donald Trump said Ukraine had shown “no gratitude” for US efforts to end the conflict. In a conciliatory response, Zelensky said he was personally grateful to the US president for the military assistance provided by Washington, starting with the provision of Javelin missiles.
Trump’s hostile rhetoric came after a confusing weekend in which Rubio acknowledged that the White House plan was developed in Moscow but then insisted that the United States originated it.
Taken by surprise by Washington’s initiative, Ukraine’s European allies published their Kyiv-friendly plan on Sunday. It states that negotiations on the territorial issue should take place after a ceasefire agreement is reached and should begin with the line of contact – the existing front line.
The European blueprint says both sides would agree that any truce would be controlled “under US supervision.” Unlike the White House text, the European alternative does not call for Kyiv to withdraw from the cities in the eastern Donbass, which it still controls. The plan also does not rule out Ukraine’s membership in NATO, but points to the lack of consensus on its membership.
There are other proposals. They include Russia transferring the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which would allow for a 50-50 power split between Moscow and Kiev. The size of the Ukrainian army in peacetime will be 800,000 troops, which is 200,000 more than in the plan presented by the United States.
Frozen Russian assets will also be used to rebuild Ukraine, rather than being partially transferred to American investors. If Moscow had maintained a “sustainable peace,” the sanctions imposed since 2014 would have been gradually eased and Russia would have returned to the G8.
European leaders at the G20 summit in South Africa on Saturday made it clear that the White House peace formula needed “further refinement.” Polish President Donald Tusk expressed doubts on Sunday, saying: “It would be good to know for sure who the author of the plan is and where it was developed.”
A group of US senators said Rubio told them the text was not American. According to them, Moscow deliberately leaked a Russian document, which the United States then handed over to Ukraine. Rubio later insisted that the United States was the author of the proposal, with participation from Russia and Ukraine.
Amid backlash from some Republican senators, Trump abandoned his previous demand that Zelensky sign the deal by Thursday. Speaking in Washington, the US president said this was “not my final proposal”, opening the door to significant changes.
Secretary of State Rubio and US Presidential Envoy Witkoff arrived in Geneva on Sunday along with US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, who held talks with Zelensky in Kyiv last week.
After the talks, Rubio said significant progress had been made in resolving outstanding issues in the U.S. draft plan. “I think we’ve made tremendous progress,” he told reporters at the US mission in Geneva, adding: “We’ve really made progress, so I’m very optimistic that we’ll get there in a very reasonable time frame, very soon.”
Earlier, Ermak also said that the parties had made “very good progress” and were “moving forward towards the just and lasting peace that the Ukrainian people deserve.”
Zelensky said on Sunday evening that it was good that there was a “dialogue with US representatives,” adding that there were “signals that the Trump team is listening to us.”
The Kiev negotiating team previously spoke with officials from France, Germany and Britain, including Keir Starmer’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell. European officials have privately spoken harshly of the US project. They say he is “undermining the sovereignty” of Ukraine and setting conditions for its entry into the EU.
They argue that if adopted, the plan would set a dangerous global precedent. It also excludes the possibility of a French- and British-led peacekeeping force in Ukraine and limits the deployment of NATO aircraft.
Zelensky will welcome the European counteroffer, which is under enormous pressure to give in to US demands. Last week, he said his country faced an impossible choice between betraying its national interests and losing its main ally in Washington.
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Published on: 2025-11-24 09:43:00
Source: www.mk.ru
