UPDATED 9:26 A.M.
WASHINGTON/KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine on Tuesday signalled support for the framework of a peace deal with Russia but stressed that sensitive issues needed to be fixed at a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Kyiv’s message hinted that an intense diplomatic push by the Trump administration could be yielding some fruit but any optimism could be short-lived, especially as Russia stressed it would not let any deal stray too far from its own objectives.
U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators held talks on the latest U.S.-backed peace plan in Geneva on Sunday. U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll then met on Monday and Tuesday with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, a spokesperson for Driscoll said.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have been trying to narrow the gaps between them over the plan to end Europe’s deadliest and most devastating conflict since World War Two, with Ukraine wary of being strong-armed into accepting a deal largely on the Kremlin’s terms, including territorial concessions.
“Ukraine – after Geneva – supports the framework’s essence, and some of the most sensitive issues remain as points for the discussion between presidents,” a Ukrainian official said.
Zelenskiy could visit the United States in the next few days to finalise a deal with Trump, Kyiv’s national security chief Rustem Umerov said, though no such trip was confirmed from the U.S. side.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that over the past week the U.S. had made “tremendous progress towards a peace deal by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the table”. She added: “There are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States.”
Oil prices extended an earlier decline after reports of Ukraine potentially agreeing to a war-ending deal.
Underlining the high stakes for Ukraine, its capital Kyiv was hit by a barrage of missiles and hundreds of drones overnight in a Russian strike that killed at least seven people and again disrupted power and heating systems. Residents were sheltering underground wearing winter jackets, some in tents.
ZELENSKIY: WILL DISCUSS SENSITIVE ISSUES WITH TRUMP
U.S. policy towards the war has zigzagged in recent months.
A hastily arranged summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August raised worries in Kyiv and European capitals that the Trump administration might accept many Russian demands, though the meeting ultimately resulted in more U.S. pressure on Russia.
The 28-point plan that emerged last week caught many in the U.S. government, Kyiv and Europe alike off-guard and prompted fresh concerns that the Trump administration might be willing to push Ukraine to sign a peace deal heavily tilted toward Moscow.
The plan would require Kyiv to cede territory beyond the almost 20% of Ukraine that Russia has captured since its February 2022 full-scale invasion, as well as accept curbs on its military and bar it from ever joining NATO – conditions Kyiv has long rejected as tantamount to surrender.
The sudden push has raised the pressure on Ukraine and Zelenskiy, who is now at his most vulnerable since the start of the war after a corruption scandal saw two of his ministers dismissed, and as Russia makes battlefield gains.
Zelenskiy could struggle to get Ukrainians to swallow a deal viewed as selling out their interests.
He said on Monday the latest peace plan incorporated “correct” points after talks in Geneva. “The sensitive issues, the most delicate points, I will discuss with President Trump,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Zelenskiy said the process of producing a final document would be difficult. Russia’s unrelenting attacks on Ukraine have left many sceptical about how peace can be achieved soon.
“There was a very loud explosion, our windows were falling apart, we got dressed and ran out,” said Nadiia Horodko, a 39-year-old accountant, after a residential building was struck in Kyiv overnight.
“There was horror, everything was already burning here, and a woman was screaming from the eighth floor, ‘Save the child, the child is on fire!'”
MACRON WARNS AGAINST EUROPEAN CAPITULATION
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said an amended peace plan must reflect the “spirit and letter” of an understanding reached between Putin and Trump at their Alaska summit.
“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation (for Russia),” Lavrov warned.
A group of countries supporting Ukraine, which is known as the coalition of the willing and includes Britain and France, was also set to hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday.
“It’s an initiative that goes in the right direction: peace. However, there are aspects of that plan that deserve to be discussed, negotiated, improved,” French President Emmanuel Macron told RTL radio regarding the U.S.-proposed plan. “We want peace, but we don’t want a peace that would be a capitulation.”
In a separate development, Romania scrambled fighter jets to track drones that breached its territory near the border with Ukraine early on Tuesday, and one was still advancing deeper into the NATO-member country, the defence ministry said.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart, Devika Nair, Tom Balmforth, Pavel Polityuk, Alessandro Parodi, Michel Rose, Luiza Ilie and Sergiy Karazy; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Frances Kerry and Mark Heinrich)
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WASHINGTON/KYIV (Reuters) -U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has held unannounced talks with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi as part of an intense new push by President Donald Trump’s administration to end the war in Ukraine and more meetings were expected on Tuesday.
The talks come as U.S. and Ukrainian officials sought to narrow the gaps between them over a peace plan, with core issues still unresolved and Ukraine wary of being strong-armed into accepting a deal largely on the Kremlin’s terms.
The exact nature of the talks in Abu Dhabi, which were confirmed to Reuters by a U.S. official, were not immediately clear, and it was not known who was in the Russian delegation. The U.S. official added that Driscoll, who has emerged as a point man for U.S. diplomatic efforts, was also expected to meet Ukrainian officials while in Abu Dhabi.
Underlining the stakes for Ukraine, its capital Kyiv was hit by a barrage of missiles and hundreds of drones overnight in an attack that killed at least six people. Residents were sheltering underground wearing winter jackets, some in tents.
ZELENSKIY: WILL DISCUSS SENSITIVE ISSUES WITH TRUMP
U.S. policy toward the war in Ukraine has zigzagged in recent months.
A hastily arranged summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August spurred worries in Kyiv and European capitals that Washington might accept many Russian demands, but ultimately resulted in more U.S. pressure on Russia.
The latest U.S. peace proposal, a 28-point plan that emerged last week, caught many in the U.S. government, Kyiv and Europe off-guard and prompted fresh concerns that the Trump administration might be willing to push Ukraine to sign a peace deal heavily tilted toward Moscow.
The plan would require Kyiv to cede more territory, accept curbs on its military and bar it from ever joining NATO, conditions Kyiv has long rejected as tantamount to surrender.
The sudden U.S. push raises the pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is now at his most vulnerable since the start of the war in 2022 after a corruption scandal saw two of his ministers dismissed and as Russia makes battlefield gains.
Zelenskiy said on Monday that the latest proposed peace plan had incorporated “correct” points after talks over the weekend in Geneva but that sensitive issues were still to be discussed with Trump.
“As of now, after Geneva, there are fewer points, no longer 28, and many correct elements have been incorporated into this framework,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“Our team has already reported today on the new draft of steps and this is truly the right approach. The sensitive issues, the most delicate points, I will discuss with President Trump.”
Zelenskiy said the process of producing a final document would be difficult. The Kremlin said it had nothing to say yet about reports of the Abu Dhabi meeting.
“Currently, the only substantive thing is the American project, the Trump project,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “We believe that this could become a very good basis for negotiations.”
MACRON WARNS AGAINST EUROPEAN CAPITULATION
A group of countries supporting Ukraine, which is known as the coalition of the willing and includes Britain and France, was set to hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday.
“It’s an initiative that goes in the right direction: peace. However, there are aspects of that plan that deserve to be discussed, negotiated, improved,” French President Emmanuel Macron told RTL radio about the U.S.-proposed peace plan. “We want peace, but we don’t want a peace that would be a capitulation.”
He added that only the Ukrainians could decide what territorial concessions they are ready to make.
“What was put on the table gives us an idea of what would be acceptable for the Russians. Does that mean that it is what must be accepted by the Ukrainians and the Europeans? The answer is no,” Macron added.
Ukraine should not have to accept limits on the size of its military, he said. Macron also said frozen Russian assets are in Europe, and Europe alone can decide what to do with them.
In a separate development, Romania sent out fighter jets to track drones which breached its territory near the border with Ukraine early on Tuesday, and one was still advancing deeper into the country, the defence ministry said.
Tensions have mounted along Europe’s eastern flank in recent months after suspected Russian drones breached the airspace of several NATO states.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali, Devika Nair, Pavel Polityuk, Alessandro Parodi, Michel Rose, Luiza IlieWriting by Matthias WilliamsEditing by Frances Kerry)
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