Name: US and Ukraine agree to change draft of plan to end the war | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-11-24T17:01:09.000Z
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The US And Ukraine say they have agreed to work on an updated and refined version of a peace plan put forward by Washington after a day of high stakes diplomacy in Geneva.

The White House described the discussions in Switzerland as a significant step forward, while Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there were signals that President Trump's team was listening to Kyiv.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on his way to meet Ukrainian and other European officials in Genev early on Sunday.

A chance for Washington to finalize its 28 point plan to end the war in Ukraine.

A plan that has alarmed Kyiv's European allies and some U.S.

lawmakers for its concessions to Russia, including Kyiv, ceding territory to Moscow.

As the talks got underway, media got a glimpse of who was present inside the negotiations.

But by the end of the day, little was revealed about what was discussed.

So I'm not going to speculate or go into the details of any of the specific items in the latest version of the proposal because frankly, by tomorrow or the next day that may have evolved and changed further.

But I can tell you, I guess that I feel very optimistic that we can get something done here because we made a tremendous amount of progress today.

That positive tone was echoed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation in Geneva.

And Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky had this to say.

The delegation has just reported on the results of their discussions and these were substantive conversations.

We are working very carefully on the steps needed to end the war.

An assessment on just how those discussions may have gone came in a later joint U.

It said that a refined peace framework had been drafted following the talks and stated that any future agreement must fully uphold Ukraine's sovereignty and deliver a sustainable and just peace.

Terms that may well concern Russia, who would have to sign off on any agreement hammered out between Washington and Kyiv.

Right, let's get more on this from our correspondents in Ukraine and Switzerland.

Nick Connolly is in Odessa and Jack Parrac has been covering these talks in Geneva.

ukraine and the EU are on the same page when it comes to ending the war in Ukraine?

Hard to tell whether they're on the same page, but

what they're saying is the right kind of things.

The Ukrainians and the Americans looked positive.

We also saw it from Andre Yermak, the Ukrainian head of delegation.

But what's interesting about these talks that were cobbled Together at last minute.

Everybody rushed into Geneva on Saturday night for the talks that took place throughout Sunday is that the main event really was the direct talks between the Americans and the Ukrainians.

But prior to that, the Ukrainians had been meetings with, meeting with representatives from the European side.

So the Brits, the French, the Italians and the Germans and some representatives from the European Union as well.

But these talks and this agreement, this mood music, isn't all of those.

Not the Americans and the Europeans and the Ukrainians.

And in fact, the Europeans responded to Trump's so called 28 point peace plan with their own 28 points that they've responded, which include not ceding Ukrainian territory to Russia and not reducing the military to the extent that Donald Trump, the US President had wanted.

As I say, it was quite a shambolic day yesterday.

Everybody running between different locations, but they have wrapped up and they seem positive.

So a lot of people are hoping that that's a good sign for peace in the long run.

I do want to come back to you about the European version of this plan, but

Nick, what's been the reaction in Ukraine to this day of talks?

Certainly in terms of official reactions, it's all about gratitude to Donald Trump and basically toeing the polite line that has been the lesson for Ukraine's politicians since Donald Trump got back into the White House.

Do not say anything that can be construed as a lack of gratitude.

Do not contradict him in public and then let the Europeans say out loud what you're thinking in terms of quite how bad this plan is.

I think for now they're going to go along with it.

They are very, very worried about the blame game, about being blamed by D.C.

and obviously by the Russians for this war continuing.

There's still huge skepticism whether actually anything will change, but they have to be seen to be engaging.

And, you know, they are hoping Ukraine's allies in Washington more, let's say, mainstream Republicans will sort of push Trump.

We've heard from Trump recently, this is not his last offer.

And it seems like all of these points are still very much up for grabs.

You know, this seems a really clear point now that the American side doesn't have any real principled attachment at these points.

This is all about getting this done in a hurry and potentially getting a Nobel Prize for Donald Trump.

So I think for now it's about holding the nerve and letting the Europeans do the unpleasant stuff in public and Hoping that this kind of passes.

Jack, let's talk about the Europeans because you were saying earlier that European officials were basically pushing back against the US President's the so called peace proposal.

And you're talking about this, their own adapted plan that they presented.

What are the salient points of that plan, do you know?

And how infringient would you say has Europe been along the way?

Well, the plan, it hasn't been publicly circulated yet, but

we know that it has been sent to the Americans and essentially it outlies the Same sort of 28 points but with the red lines of the Europeans and the Ukrainians, like I said, not ceding territory, not reducing the military so that Ukraine wouldn't be able to defend itself.

The big question now is how do the Europeans position themselves?

Obviously they've funded the Ukrainians to a large extent throughout the period of this war and supported politically massively.

So now I think what we will expect is some sort of strengthening.

There was the coalition of the willing this to these discussions to keep going now amongst EU leaders.

And they're also aware that Donald Trump set out this Thursday deadline for a deal to be done.

But a number of the diplomats and officials that I've spoken to have said listen, this deadline was sort of created by Donald Trump and it can be moved and that the priorities and the red lines that they won't change just because there's a sort of arbitrary deadline of Thursday this week.

Nick, where does this leave Volodymyr Zelensky?

Has the Ukrainian president's hand been strengthened in these past few days?

Well, that's the extraordinary thing about this British that on the one hand, you know, this looked incredibly bad for Ukraine when it kind of filtered out at the end of last week.

Basically it seemed like Donald Trump had decided to order the Ukrainians to capitulate.

But on the other hand, in terms of domestic politics, it has basically saved him.

It has for now at least delayed all talk of the VIP corruption scandal in the Energy Ministry that was also getting dangerously close to his the head of his administration, Andre Yermak, who's now in Geneva basically heading Ukraine's delegation and obviously is now untouchable for the foreseeable future because of that.

Even though lots of people here in Ukraine wanted him gone last week.

And there is a real sense now that Zelensky people around him are going to fight back and attack those very same anti corruption organs that brought out these investigations last week and try and dampen things down and tell people this is not the time to rock the boat.

Maybe in the short term it will in terms of the kind of investigations.

But I think Ukrainian public opinion has really bought into these investigations and is really following in a way that they don't normally with kind of normal revelations that aren't quite as visceral and as kind of extraordinary as the ones we saw last week.

Nick Connolly in Odessa and Jack Parrack in Geneva, thank you both so much.

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US and Ukraine agree to change draft of plan to end the war | DW News

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