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The US has formally handed Ukraine a sweeping peace plan drawn up with Moscow to end Russia’s war in the country, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said on Thursday.
A draft of the 28-point proposal, developed by US and Russian negotiators, envisages major concessions by Kyiv and includes points that cross long-standing red lines for Ukraine.
A White House official said on Thursday that President Donald Trump had endorsed the plan.
Zelenskyy, who cannot dismiss the proposal out of hand given Ukraine’s reliance on the US for critical political and military support, has faced increased pressure to get on board with Washington’s initiatives to end the war.
According to people with knowledge of the plan, it would require Ukraine to cede land under its control in the eastern Donbas region, cut the size of its armed forces by half and abandon vital categories of weaponry.
Zelenskyy’s office said: “The president of Ukraine has officially received from the American side a draft plan which, in the American side’s assessment, could help reinvigorate diplomacy.”
It added Kyiv had “agreed to work on the plan’s provisions in a way that would bring about a just end to the war” and that Zelenskyy expected to talk to Trump in the coming days about “the existing diplomatic opportunities and the key points required to achieve peace”.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and US secretary of state Marco Rubio had been “quietly” working on the peace plan for the past month.
“The president supports this plan,” she added. “It’s a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine, and we believe that it should be acceptable to both sides, and we’re working very hard to get it done.”
The EU has responded to the plan by calling for Europe and Ukraine to be “on board” in the negotiations. “We haven’t heard of any concessions on the Russian side,” Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s high representative for foreign policy, said.
The US initiative also comes as Zelenskyy’s political position has been weakened by a spiralling corruption scandal that has forced out two ministers.
Zelenskyy earlier on Thursday met a US military delegation led by secretary of the army Daniel Driscoll, a rising star at the Pentagon and close ally of vice-president JD Vance.
The Ukrainian president confirmed later in a post on X that he had discussed the peace plan with Driscoll.
A US official said Driscoll brought forward his planned trip to Ukraine by about a month after the White House asked him last week to “help kick-start peace negotiations and to serve as a fact-finding mission”.
The official added the army secretary was also planning to engage with the Russians so “he can have the same conversations on their end to get us toward that peace”.
Zelenskyy is coming under pressure to sign up to the Trump administration’s diplomatic push as Ukrainian troops lose ground to Moscow’s forces in the east of the country and Russian missile strikes wreak havoc on the country’s energy infrastructure.
Until now, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly stated that concessions such as ceding territory under its forces’ control would be unacceptable to the country’s public.
Commenting on the US initiative on Wednesday night, Rubio said ending the war required “serious and realistic ideas” and concessions by both sides.
He added on X: “That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”
Opposition groups in Ukraine have called for the removal of Zelenskyy’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak as well as the resignation of the entire government.
The Ukrainian president was set to hold a party meeting on Thursday evening, with MPs telling the Financial Times they had been asked to refrain from posing “political” questions, in a sign of tension with Zelenskyy.
They added that dozens support Yermak’s ouster and deeper personnel changes.
Additional reporting by Amy Mackinnon and James Politi in Washington
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