Ukraine President Zelenskyy says he agreed to work on US draft plan to end war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he’s agreed to work on a peace plan drafted by the US and Russia and expects to talk with Donald Trump in the coming days about the proposals.

Ukraine has officially received a draft plan from Washington which the US side believes could help reinvigorate diplomacy, Zelenskyy’s office said in a statement Thursday following his meeting with top US generals visiting Kyiv.

Zelenskyy “outlined the fundamental principles that matter to our people, and following today’s meeting, the parties agreed to work on the plan’s provisions in a way that would bring about a just end to the war,” it said. The Ukrainian leader expects to discuss with Trump “the existing diplomatic opportunities and the key points required to achieve peace,” according to the statement.

The latest attempt by the US administration to revive negotiations involves a 28-point plan that’s modeled on the Gaza ceasefire in an effort to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that’s deep in its fourth year. It outlines known Kremlin demands for concessions that Kyiv has repeatedly said are unacceptable and that have so far hindered all efforts to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire.

Trump’s national security team has engaged with both Russian and Ukrainian officials and the president supports the current plan, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday afternoon.

“I’m not going to litigate the details of this plan as it’s ongoing and it’s in flux, but the President supports this plan,” she said. “It’s a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine and we believe that it should be acceptable to both sides.”

Zelenskyy received signals from the US that he should accept the deal drawn up in consultation with Moscow, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified because the matter is sensitive. The proposal includes demands for Ukraine to cede territory in its eastern Donbas region to the Kremlin, the removal of sanctions from Russia, and a halt to war-crimes investigations, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Ukraine would also have to accept limits on the size of its army, the person said, asking not to be identified because the issue is sensitive. That would leave it vulnerable to any renewed offensive ordered by Putin, who endorsed a previous peace accord with Kyiv over eastern Ukraine before starting the 2022 invasion.

European diplomats expressed skepticism about any deal, noting that Putin has a track record of appearing to accept overtures when under pressure. The Kremlin’s trying to stop US sanctions targeting Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC, from coming into force on Friday, people familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to speak freely.

The White House’s Leavitt said engaging with both sides of the war was the only way to come to an “agreeable solution.” Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met Ukrainian officials in the past week and had been “working on a plan quietly” for roughly a month, she said.

“I know there’s a lot of criticism out there and a lot of doubters, but I would just remind you of the historic success that this President and his team accomplished in the Middle East,” she said, referring to the US-brokered truce struck in October between Israel and Hamas. “We believe that is possible with Russia and Ukraine, and we’re hoping and working very hard to achieve that.”

With Washington pressing Kyiv to consider talks, Putin held a meeting with senior military staff at a command post on Thursday.

Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov told him in televised footage that Russian troops had captured a number of settlements and taken control of Kupyansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, while about 75% of Pokrovsk was also under Russian control. Ukraine’s military denied Russia had seized Kupyansk in a statement on social media, saying it remained in Ukrainian control. The claims could not be independently verified

The plan to end the war is being promoted by Witkoff and Kremlin representative Kirill Dmitriev. Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov met with Witkoff earlier this week in Miami and was briefed about the proposal, which appeared beneficial to Russia, a person said, asking not to be identified because the matter isn’t public.

Witkoff has been quietly working on the plan for a month, with input from both Ukrainians and the Russians on terms acceptable to end the war and both sides will need to make concessions, a senior US official said.

Right-Hand Man

Zelenskyy’s facing US pressure to make concessions to halt the war as he also prepares to meet with lawmakers from his party on Thursday to try to defuse public anger over a corruption scandal. Anti-graft investigators linked his former business partner to a scheme to embezzle as much as $100 million, a probe that has already forced the departure of two government ministers.

Some in his party want Zelenskyy to replace Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak, his right-hand man who plays a direct role in decisions on top-level appointments and critical elements of Ukraine’s wartime strategy, according to a person familiar with the matter. The president will face a parliamentary crisis if he fails to oust Yermak, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive issues.

Yermak, who regularly accompanies Zelenskyy on high-stakes overseas trips, has amassed outsized influence in the administration. Zelenskyy pushed back against criticism last year, describing Yermak as a “powerful manager.”

Ukraine’s two independent anti-corruption agencies released details last week of their 15-month probe into alleged money-laundering in the country’s energy sector. The scheme involved kickbacks from contractors building defenses to protect Ukraine’s nuclear energy facilities from Russian air strikes, according to investigators.

The agencies are in possession of unreleased recordings of alleged conspirators discussing different corruption schemes and officials in Kyiv are on tenterhooks to see who else might be drawn into the investigation.

The controversy erupted as Ukrainians endure lengthy power outages following intense Russian missile and drone attacks targeting energy infrastructure in the approach to winter.

Zelenskyy in July sought to seize control over the anti-corruption agencies, before backing down in the face of Ukraine’s largest street protests since the war began and condemnation from Kyiv’s international allies.

The president told Bloomberg TV in a Nov. 13 interview that he fully supports the investigation. “The most important thing is sentences for those people who are guilty,” he said. “The president of a country at war cannot have any friends.”