President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday Ukraine was ready to advance a US-backed framework for ending the war with Russia and discuss disputed points with US President Donald Trump in talks he said should include European allies.
US and Ukrainian officials have been trying to narrow the gaps between them over Trump’s plan to end Europe’s deadliest and most devastating conflict since the Second World War, with Ukraine wary of being strong-armed into accepting a deal largely on Russian terms, including territorial concessions.
In a speech to what is known as the coalition of the willing allies, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Zelenskiy urged European leaders to hash out a framework for deploying a ‘reassurance force’ to Ukraine and to keep backing Kyiv for as long as Moscow showed no inclination to end its war.
“We firmly believe security decisions about Ukraine must include Ukraine, security decisions about Europe must include Europe ... Because when something is decided behind the back of a country or its people, there is always a high risk it simply won’t work,” Zelenskiy said, according to his speech text.
“That framework is on the table, and we’re ready to move forward together – with the US, with the personal engagement of President Trump,” he added.
Leaders of Britain, France and Germany, following their Coalition of the Willing meeting, expressed support for Trump’s efforts to end the war.
Trump said on social media that negotiations had left ‘only a few remaining points of disagreement’. He said he had directed his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and his Army secretary, Dan Driscoll, to meet at the same time with Ukrainian officials. Trump gave no details of the timing of the meetings.
“I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelenskiy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages,” he added.
A Ukrainian diplomat cautioned that territorial concessions remained a major sticking point, meaning a final deal was far from certain despite accords on various specific points.
“These are really tough questions for us,” the diplomat said.
Trump said at a White House event earlier in the day he thought a deal on Ukraine was getting close, saying, “We’re going to get there.”
Zelenskiy could visit the US in the next few days to finalise a deal with Trump, Kyiv’s national security chief Rustem Umerov said, though there was no immediate confirmation of such a trip from the US side.
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, as Russia stressed it would not let any deal stray too far from its own maximum objectives.
US and Ukrainian negotiators held talks on the latest US-backed peace plan in Geneva on Sunday. Driscoll then met on Monday and yesterday with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, a spokesperson for Driscoll said.
A Ukrainian official said Kyiv ‘supports the framework’s essence, and some of the most sensitive issues remain as points for the discussion between presidents’.
Oil prices extended their declines after reports of Ukraine potentially agreeing to a war-ending deal.
US policy towards the war has zigzagged in recent months.
A hastily arranged summit between Trump and 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 US pressure on Russia. The 28-point plan that emerged last week caught many in the US 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 yield territory beyond the almost 20 per cent 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.
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