By Olena Harmash and Max Hunder
KYIV (Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after talks with a top U.S. Army official on Thursday that he was ready to work with Washington on a plan to end the war in Ukraine, and he expects to discuss it with President Donald Trump in coming days.
European countries are pushing back against the U.S.-backed 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.
But Zelenskiy, whose office said he had received a draft of the plan, said after meeting U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll in Kyiv that Ukraine and the United States would work together on elements of the plan.
KYIV READY FOR ‘CONSTRUCTIVE’ WORK
“Our teams — Ukraine and the USA – will work on the points of the plan to end the war,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram. “We are ready for constructive, honest and prompt work.”
Zelenskiy’s office did not comment directly on the content of the 28-point plan, which has not been published, but said the Ukrainian leader had “outlined the fundamental principles that matter to our people”.
“In the coming days, the President of Ukraine expects to discuss with President Trump the existing diplomatic opportunities and the key points required to achieve peace,” it said.
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.
The White House said senior Trump administration officials had met Ukrainian officials in the past week to discuss the plan.
Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff were involved in the meetings and that Washington was having good conversations with both sides about how to end the war.
GENERAL SAYS RUSSIA CONTROLS KUPIANSK
The acceleration in U.S. 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 U.S. initiative.
“Consultations are not currently under way. 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 U.S. 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 slowly advancing while bombarding Ukrainian energy supplies and cities as the cold winter sets in.
The Kremlin said on Thursday Putin had visited the command post of the Russian forces’ “West” grouping where he met the chief of Russia’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, and other top military brass.
Gerasimov told Putin that Russian forces had taken control of the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, a city Moscow sees as an important target in its westward push through central and eastern Ukraine. Reuters could not independently verify his statement.
Russian forces are also poised to capture the ruined eastern railway hub of Pokrovsk. Video 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 U.S. plan, 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.”
Rubio said earlier 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.
(Reporting by Brussels, Washington and Kyiv newsrooms, Writing by Peter Graff and Timothy Heritage, Editing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean, Andrew Heavens and Cynthia Osterman)
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