Ukraine Expected To Give Up Land, Some Arms Under U.S. Peace Plan: Report

LONDON/KYIV, Nov 19 (Reuters) – The United States has signaled to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Ukraine should accept a draft framework prepared by the United States that proposes Kiev give up territory and some weapons to end the war with Russia, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The proposals include, among other things, reducing the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, said the sources, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. They said Washington wanted Kiev to accept the main points.

Such a plan would mean a major setback for Kiev, where Russia faces further territorial gains in eastern Ukraine and where Zelenskyy is struggling with a corruption scandal that resulted in parliament sacking the energy and justice ministers on Wednesday.

The White House declined to comment on the matter. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in X that Washington “will continue to develop a list of potential ideas to end this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”

“Ending a complex and deadly war like the one in Ukraine requires a comprehensive sharing of serious and realistic ideas. Achieving a lasting peace requires both sides agreeing to difficult but necessary compromises,” Rubio said. he said.

A senior Ukrainian official had previously told Reuters that Kiev had received “signals” about a series of US proposals to end the war that Washington was discussing with Russia. Ukraine had no role in preparing the proposals, the source said.

Zelenskyy, who held talks with President Tayyip Erdoğan in Türkiye on Wednesday, will meet with US Army officials in Kiev on Thursday.

In his comments on Telegram, Zelenskyy did not mention Washington’s framework but called for effective US leadership to help end the war that has been going on for more than 3.5 years.

“To stop the bloodshed and achieve lasting peace, the most important thing is that we coordinate with all our partners and that American leadership remains effective and strong,” Zelenskyy wrote after meeting Erdogan in Ankara.

Zelenskyy said only the United States and President Donald Trump “have enough power to finally end the war.”

The Ukrainian president also said that Erdogan proposed different formats for negotiations and that “it is important for us that Türkiye is ready to provide the necessary platform.”

Signs that the Trump administration is moving again to end the war triggered the biggest rise in Ukrainian government bond prices in months on Wednesday.

There have been no face-to-face meetings between Kiev and Moscow since the meeting in Istanbul in July, and Russian forces continued Moscow’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine, killing 25 people in attacks overnight.

Efforts to revive peace talks appear to be gaining momentum, but Moscow has shown no sign it would change the terms to end the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long demanded that Kiev abandon plans to join the US-led NATO military alliance and withdraw its troops from four states that Moscow claims as part of Russia. Moscow has given no indication that it is withdrawing any of these demands, and Ukraine has said it will not accept them.

Russian forces control about 19% of Ukrainian territory and continue to advance, launching frequent attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

Turkey, a NATO member that remains close to both Kiev and Moscow, hosted the first round of peace talks in the first weeks of the war in 2022; this was the only such meeting until this year, when Trump launched a new initiative to end the war.

The Kremlin said that Russian representatives will not attend the talks to be held in Ankara on Wednesday, but that Putin is open to talks with the United States and Türkiye about the results of the talks.

On Wednesday, citing a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter, Axios reported that the new U.S. plan calls for Ukraine to give Moscow part of eastern Ukraine that is not currently under its control in exchange for a U.S. security guarantee for Kiev and Europe against future Russian aggression.

Commenting on the alleged new US proposals, a European diplomat said they could be “another attempt by the Trump administration to corner Kiev”, but added that there could be no solution that did not take into account the position of Ukraine or Washington’s European allies.

Another European diplomat said the suggestion that Ukraine cut its military appeared to be a Russian demand rather than a serious proposal.

The US embassy in Kiev said a US delegation led by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was in Kiev on a “fact-finding mission”. Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George is also part of the delegation, and he and Driscoll will meet with Zelenskyy on Thursday, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

(Hüseyin Hayatsever in Ankara, additional reporting from Moscow and Istanbul newsrooms, John Irish in Paris; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Gareth Jones; Editing by Jon Boyle)