(Dec 24): Ukraine and the US remain split primarily on territorial issues in talks on a peace plan to end Russia’s war, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
“We now have draft documents that largely reflect the joint Ukrainian-American position, in some respects the American position,” Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday. “Some issues are still to be resolved.”
Still, Zelenskiy offered an upbeat assessment, saying the negotiations had “moved significantly closer to finalising the documents”.
Weeks of US-brokered talks have produced a 20-point peace plan that could become the basis for ending Europe’s worst conflict since World War II. President Vladimir Putin continues to press Russia’s maximalist demands, though, including for Kyiv to give up land in eastern Donetsk that his troops have failed to capture during almost four years of fighting since the February 2022 full-scale invasion.
Ukraine rejects that demand, fearing that surrendering the heavily-fortified area would leave it vulnerable to a new Russian attack.
Ukraine aims to persuade US President Donald Trump to propose that Russia halt the war along the current contact line, Zelenskiy said.
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Russia is currently suggesting it could pull back its troops from the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolayiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, according to the president. But Moscow also wants Ukraine to withdraw from the area it still controls in Donetsk, which the US believes should be designated as a “free economic” or “demilitarised” zone, he said.
“In fact, we are in a situation where the Russians want us to withdraw from the Donetsk region, while the Americans are trying to find a way for this to be ‘not a withdrawal’ — because we are against withdrawal,” Zelenskiy said.
If the US continues to back Russia’s demand for a Ukrainian retreat in Donetsk to allow for the creation of a special zone, Ukraine would insist that Russia also pull its troops from the area, according to the president. Giving up any land would be difficult for the government in Kyiv to implement as it would violate Ukrainian law and require a referendum.
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It’s unclear whether Putin is willing to accept the proposals. He has previously insisted that the Kremlin’s war aims will be achieved either through negotiations or on the battlefield, and has declared that Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions must become part of Russia even as his forces have never fully occupied them.
Another sticking point in talks is the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. The US is pressing for the plant, which Russia seized in 2022, to be jointly owned by all three sides, according to Zelenskiy. Trump has proposed that the facility’s future output should be split equally among Ukraine, Russia and the US.
Zelenskiy called the idea “very inappropriate and not entirely realistic”, adding: “How can there be joint commercial activity with the Russians after everything that has happened?”
The president said the company’s output should be split in half between Ukraine and the US, which could then decide whether to pass any of its share to Russia.
The president’s remarks are the most detailed account yet on the status of the negotiations for a peace deal. US envoys will hand over the draft of the 20-point plan to their Russian counterparts on Wednesday, Zelenskiy said.
As part of the compromise, Zelenskiy pledged to hold presidential elections “as soon as possible” after the ceasefire is reached. The truce would take effect on the day the peace accord is signed with monitoring by international mediators.
Ukraine would be allowed to retain a peacetime military of as many as 800,000 troops and any violation of the ceasefire by Russia would trigger US security guarantees, Zelenskiy said.
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Ukraine has also won US backing for a clear deadline to join the European Union and a commitment for hundreds of billions of dollars in postwar reconstruction, as well as a new pact with Russia to safeguard its river and sea trade, according to the president.
“As of today, the timing of Ukraine’s accession is a bilateral discussion between the US and Ukraine, without European confirmation for now,” Zelenskiy said.
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