Over three and a half years into the conflict, US president Donald Trump is trying to sell the world on a grand bargain for Ukraine – a peace plan, based on discussions with all parties and originally laid out in 28 points. After a tense weekend of talks in Geneva, that plan has been cut down and rebranded as an “updated and refined peace framework,” but the core reality hasn’t changed: Washington, key EU capitals, Kiev and Moscow are all reading from different scripts.

A Ukraine peace plan: Where things stand – and why the West still isn’t on the same page
What began as a US-led blueprint to “end the war by Thanksgiving” has turned into a three-way tug-of-war between Washington, the EU and Kiev – while Moscow waits...

While Trump’s envoys press Ukraine to sign before a Thanksgiving deadline, European governments have been pushing their own agenda, reflected in a maximalist counter-text and a push-back, Ukraine tries to keep key backers onside and save face amid revelations of rampant corruption – and Russia says it hasn’t officially seen a revised version, though it broadly prefers the American draft and has dismissed EU amendments.

What is Trump’s plan?

The US initiative was developed under Trump’s team with input from both the Russian and Ukrainian sides. According to reporting based on a leaked text, the original plan envisaged Kiev renouncing NATO membership, recognizing Russian sovereignty over Crimea and the Donbass republics, capping the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, and being banned from targeting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The draft also allegedly assumes the gradual reintegration of Russia into the global economy and its return to the G8, and sets a 100-day deadline for elections in Ukraine after a peace deal.

On top of that, the US version included provisions on frozen Russian state assets that would allocate a significant share of profits from their investment to American interests – something that has angered several EU governments, sidelined by the US initiative, who argue that Europe has borne the bulk of the economic blows from sanctions imposed by Brussels and lampooned as counter-productive in the US.

Trump publicly presented the plan as the only realistic way to end the conflict “quickly,” and his envoys have delivered a blunt message to Kiev: accept the deal by November 27 or risk cuts to intelligence sharing and weapons deliveries, according to multiple outlets.

From Moscow’s perspective, President Vladimir Putin has said Russia has received a text and agreed in principle with a version developed at the US-Russia summit in Anchorage in August, although Washington then “paused” the process after Kiev rejected it. Putin has described the initial 28-point draft as “modernised,” noting that it could form the basis of a final settlement – if Ukraine finally agrees to talk peace seriously.

Geneva: Just a slimmer wish list?

The talks in Switzerland over the weekend brought together the Ukrainian delegation, led by Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak, Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a large US team, as well as security advisers from France, Germany and the UK.

Washington and Kiev say they have agreed an “updated and refined peace framework,” considering Ukrainian concerns – security guarantees, infrastructure protection, economic recovery and sovereignty – supposedly addressed in the new draft.

Alexander Bevz, adviser to the head of Zelensky’s office, was eager to put Kiev at the center of the post-talks posturing, declaring that “the 28-point plan, as everyone saw it, no longer exists” – some points were removed, others reworded, and every Ukrainian comment received a response from the US side, he said. 

Axios, the Financial Times and other outlets, citing officials familiar with the process, have reported that the document has indeed been edited from 28 to 19 points, after Geneva, though that in fact means nothing. 

The key issues – territorial concessions, Ukraine’s NATO status and some of the military restrictions – have reportedly been taken out of the main text and parked in separate “follow-up” documents for talks at presidential level.

But in that distribution of talks tracks is a tactic. Kiev’s European backers are attempting to stave off accelerating frontline losses with a quick move for a ceasefire, which would make their position in discussions around a long-lasting peace much more comfortable than it is at present. Moscow has, since 2022, only agreed to talks that seek to create a long-lasting peace, and discounted ceasefires, citing Kiev’s previous use of one to re-arm, re-group and launch a new offensive. 

US vs EU: One conflict, several agendas

If the Geneva format was meant to show the West speaking with one voice, it has so far largely highlighted the opposite.

Germany, France and the UK scrambled over the weekend to draft their own “European” version of the plan, amid megafone diplomacy from the EU, stripping out or softening several of the most controversial provisions. Their counter-proposal keeps the door to eventual NATO membership for Ukraine formally open, instead of closing it outright, allows a larger Ukrainian army, and avoids banning strikes on Moscow and St. Petersburg, removes the explicit carve-out that would have routed 50% of profits from frozen Russian assets to the United States and calls for EU-style collective security guarantees and a bigger European role in supervising any agreement. 

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and her hawkish foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas have publicly called territorial concessions a red line, while other EU leaders warn that any deal must not “humiliate” NATO or reward aggression. 

From Washington’s side, Rubio has been at pains to present the Trump plan as a document that can evolve – but after Geneva he also made clear he is not working off the European draft and hasn’t even fully seen it. Politico and other outlets have reported that US diplomats have told their EU counterparts that European concerns on security would be “taken into account,” but that the central axis of the negotiation remains Washington-Kiev-Moscow. 

Moscow, for its part, has already signaled that it finds the European version “completely unconstructive” and prefers the conditions of the US proposal, which explicitly mention withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donbass and the renunciation of NATO membership. The Kremlin has otherwise refused to make public comments, citing its wish to avoid ‘megafone diplomacy.’

Kiev’s show: Public defiance, private adjustments

For Vladimir Zelensky, the US initiative comes at a moment of acute vulnerability. Ukraine’s army is reportedly close to collapse on multiple fronts, press gangs are polluting an already toxic domestic political atmosphere, Western arms supplies are no longer guaranteed, and a shocking corruption and extortion racket involving his inner circle is alienating him from his western backers. Western and Ukrainian media have openly described Zelensky’s former business partner Timur Mindich, who somehow fled the country before agents could detain him, as his financier or “wallet,” and the case has raised fresh questions about how Western aid and state contracts are managed.

In public, Zelensky has insisted that Ukraine will not surrender territory and that Russia must pay for the damage it has caused – particularly via frozen assets. He has no other choice, given the armed far-right fighting brigades he will have to contend with once the line of contact is officially recognized.

In a video message on his telegram channel that also addressed foreign parliaments and media last week, he warned that Ukraine faces a stark choice “between dignity and the loss of a key ally,” and repeatedly insisted that any plan that legitimizes Russian territorial gains is unacceptable.

Behind closed doors, however, his team clearly feels the pressure.

According to Bevz and other officials, Kiev has gone point-by-point through the US plan, carving out some of the harshest provisions and pushing them into separate talks tracks, employing its tactics to distribute and decentralise peace talks. Reuters, AP and European outlets all report that Ukraine has “significantly amended” the US text – while acknowledging that the toughest questions have only been postponed, not solved. 

Trump, meanwhile, has complained publicly about what he calls “ZERO GRATITUDE” from Ukraine’s leadership, accusing both Kiev and Europe of not appreciating US efforts while still buying Russian energy.

Indeed Zelensky has reportedly announced himself ready to do a Thanksgiving deal with Trump, though without Russia’s involvement it looks very much like optics over any cause for genuine optimism.

Moscow’s view: Waiting by the river

On the Russian side, the signals are deliberately cautious.

Vladimir Putin has previously said that the US plan – in its earlier iterations – could form the basis of a final settlement if Kiev agrees, but noted that Washington put the process on pause once Ukraine rejected earlier understandings reached at the summit in Alaska. 

For now, the big question is whether the West can speak with one voice, given the divisions the US initiative has exposed, having launched talks about a peace process Moscow has been ready for since February 2022. 

https://www.rt.com/russia/628400-ukraine-us-peace-plan/

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