US Officials Discuss Ending War in Ukraine
Senior Pentagon officials have arrived in Ukraine to discuss efforts to end the war with Russia, the US military says.
US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll held talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and was scheduled to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky later.
Reports surfaced on Wednesday that the US and Russia had prepared a new proposed framework to end the war, requiring major concessions from Ukraine, including giving up territory and considerably reducing its military.
The White House said President Donald Trump had grown “frustrated” with both Russia and Ukraine for their refusal to commit to a peace agreement and that his team had been working on a detailed and acceptable peace plan.
A senior US official confirmed to the BBC that special envoy Steve Witkoff had been “quietly working” on a plan and had received input from both the Ukrainians and the Russians on what terms are acceptable to them to end the war.
“Both sides will have to make concessions, not just Ukraine,” the official said.
Details of the draft 28-point plan emerged more than three weeks after Witkoff and his Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev reportedly spent three days in meetings in Miami, Florida.
Moscow has not confirmed or denied that a plan was worked out. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “contacts” had taken place with the US, but no “consultations or negotiations” were happening.
Citing people familiar with the matter, Axios, the Financial Times, and Reuters have reported that the plans call for Kyiv to give up areas of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine that it still controls, to significantly reduce the size of its armed forces, and to forgo many of its weapons.
Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Russia.
Neither EU nor Ukrainian officials are believed to have been involved in drafting the new proposal, sparking fears it might very well be overwhelmingly favorable to russia.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned that for any plan to work, it must ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.