Laura Gozziand
Ottilie Mitchell
EPAUkraine announced it had reached a “common understanding” with the United States on a peace deal aimed at ending the war with Russia.
The proposal is based on a 28-point plan that the United States presented to Kyiv last week and that U.S. and Ukrainian officials considered during talks in Geneva over the weekend.
US President Donald Trump said in a social media post that the original plan had been “tweaked with additional input from both sides.”
He said he had directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week, and that U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was also scheduled to meet with Ukrainian leaders this week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that he was ready to meet with President Trump to discuss unresolved “sensitivities” and that the administration was aiming for talks by the end of this month.
“I look forward to further active cooperation on the American side and with President (Donald) Trump. Russia pays the greatest attention to American power, so much depends on the United States,” he said.
President Zelenskiy said the day before that the 28-point plan had been slimmed down with some provisions removed.
President Trump wrote on social media that he looks forward to meeting with Presidents Zelensky and Putin “soon, but only if an agreement to end this war is final or in the final stages.”
The president later told reporters the deal includes “two-way” land concessions and “cleansing up the border.”
President Trump said he had not given the two sides a deadline for an agreement, saying, “For me, the deadline is when the deal ends.”
The Kremlin previously said Russia had not yet been consulted on a new draft agreement and warned it might not accept last week's revisions to the plan.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his government had supported the original U.S. framework, but the situation would be “fundamentally different” if there were any major changes.
Lavrov said the Kremlin had not received a copy of the new plan as of Tuesday morning and accused Europe of undermining U.S. peace efforts.
Mr. Driscoll and Russian representatives met in Abu Dhabi on Monday and Tuesday, but U.S. officials did not publicly address Russia's concerns.
Some of the issues on which Russia and Ukraine remain deeply at odds reportedly remain unaddressed so far, such as the security of Kiev and the control of some areas in eastern Ukraine where fighting is taking place.
Despite the White House's relative optimism, European leaders appeared to be questioning whether peace was within reach after nearly four years of war. French President Emmanuel Macron said: “We see no Russian will for a ceasefire,” but Downing Street warned: “The road ahead is long and difficult.”
On Tuesday, President Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer chaired a meeting of the so-called coalition. The coalition is a loose group of Ukraine's allies in Europe and beyond that have pledged continued defense support during a ceasefire, including tentative talks on a potential peacekeeping force.
During the call, which was also attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the leaders agreed to establish a task force with the United States to “accelerate” work on security offerings for Ukraine.
Security issues are just one area of conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Zelenskiy said on Monday that the “main issue” standing in the way of peace was Putin's demand for legal recognition of Russian-occupied territory.
The Russian government has consistently demanded Ukraine's complete withdrawal from the entire eastern Donbas region, which consists of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Russian forces also control large parts of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and two other regions, Kherson and Zaporizhia.
Diplomacy appeared to be at a standstill for weeks, but there has been a flurry of activity since leaks of the U.S.-backed plan.
The initial draft included agreeing to cede territory that Ukraine would continue to control, pledging not to join NATO, and significantly reducing the size of its military, elements of which appear to reflect key Kremlin demands.
While President Putin said the draft could be the “basis” for an agreement, President Zelenskiy responded that Ukraine faces a choice between keeping the United States as a partner and its own “dignity.” European leaders pushed back on several elements.
On the eve of talks on the plan between U.S., European and Ukrainian officials in Geneva on Sunday, Mr. Rubio was forced to publicly claim that the draft was “written by the United States” after a group of senators claimed to have told him that it was effectively a Russian draft and not the White House's position.
Both the United States and Ukraine have since welcomed progress on the draft, with Zelenskiy securing changes and calling it the “right approach.”
Trump initially urged Ukraine to quickly accept the plan, but he told reporters on Tuesday that the original version “was just a map,” adding: “It wasn't a plan, it was a concept.”
Also on Tuesday, Bloomberg published a transcript of an Oct. 14 phone call between Trump's foreign policy envoy Steve Witkov and Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov.
Asked about the recording, in which Witkov reportedly discussed how the Kremlin should approach Trump and said that Ukraine would have to give up land to secure a peace deal, Trump told reporters this represented a “very standard negotiating format.” BBC News has not independently verified the reported leaked calls.
Meanwhile, the fighting continues. Both Russia and Ukraine announced that a strike was carried out in Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday night.
Ukraine's regional chief Ivan Federov said at least seven people were injured, while Kremlin-appointed governor Yevgeny Balitsky reported that the power grid in the region controlled by Kiev had failed, leaving up to 40,000 people without power.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, and millions have been forced to flee their homes.
