Ukraine would give up a swathe of eastern territory to Russia and slash the size of its army under a sweeping 28-point peace plan backed by US President Donald Trump, according to a draft obtained by AFP.
Kyiv would also pledge never to join NATO, and would not get the Western peacekeepers they have called for, although European warplanes would be stationed in Poland to protect Ukraine.
A US official told AFP the draft plan includes a powerful security guarantee for Kyiv, modeled on NATO rules, which would commit the US and European allies to respond to any attack on Ukraine.
Russia would meanwhile be readmitted to the G8 group of nations and be integrated back into the global economy under the plan, which US officials said was still a “working document.”
“The president supports this plan. It’s a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
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Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been “quietly” working on the plan with both Russia and Ukraine for around a month, Leavitt said.
She rejected concerns that the plan echoes many of Moscow’s maximalist demands.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected to discuss the plan with Trump “in coming days.” He said any deal must bring a “dignified peace” with “respect for our independence, our sovereignty.”
Zelensky also met a Pentagon delegation headed by US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll in Kyiv.
Here are the details of the US plan:
Territory
Under the document seen by AFP, “Crimea, Lugansk and Donetsk will be recognised as de facto Russian, including by the United States.”
Kyiv still partly holds Lugansk and Donetsk, which together make up the Donbas industrial belt on the front line of the war. Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Areas from which Ukraine has withdrawn in Donetsk would be deemed a demilitarized zone which Russian forces will not enter, according to the plan.
The southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — which Russia falsely claims to have annexed — will be “frozen along the line of contact,” it said.
The plan for Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia corresponds to Moscow’s previous demands.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, would be supervised by the International Atomic Energy Authority and the electricity it produces be shared between Russia and Ukraine, the plan says.
Russia’s army occupies around a fifth of Ukraine — much of it ravaged by years of fighting, particularly in the east.
Ukraine has previously said it will never recognise Russian control over its land, but has conceded it might be forced to get it back through diplomatic means.
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Ukraine security
The US-backed plan calls for Ukraine to reduce its army to 600,000 personnel, according to the draft.
NATO would agree not to station troops in Ukraine — dashing Kyiv’s hopes for a European peacekeeping force — and the country would be barred from joining NATO by both its own constitution and the alliance’s statutes.
That fits with previous Russian demands that have been made public and goes against what Ukraine has cast as red lines.
Ukraine would receive “reliable security guarantees,” the plan says without specifying.
But European jets would be stationed in neighboring Poland.
Amid a spiralling corruption scandal in Ukraine that has claimed the jobs of two ministers, Kyiv had meanwhile removed language about an audit of foreign aid and replaced it with a call for a “full amnesty,” a senior US official said.
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Whose plan?
Under the proposed deal, Russia would be “reintegrated into the global economy” after nearly four years of tough sanctions and be allowed back into the G8.
“It is expected that Russia will not invade neighboring countries and NATO will not expand further,” it says.
But all sanctions would snap back if Russia invades Ukraine again — “in addition to a decisive coordinated military response.”
The contents of the plan have fuelled suggestions that Moscow was involved in drafting it.
“It seems that the Russians proposed this to the Americans, they accepted it,” a senior Ukrainian source told AFP.
But US officials strongly denied that it was a Russian plan, saying it had been drafted after weeks of consultations involving Witkoff, Rubio, the Ukrainians and Moscow.
Since returning to the White House, Trump’s position on the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically back and forth.
He rowed with Zelensky in the Oval Office in February before saying in September that Ukraine should try to reclaim its land.
Trump has also hit Russia with sanctions after becoming increasingly frustrated with President Vladimir Putin, with a summit in Moscow having produced few results.
On the ground, Russia claimed Thursday to have recaptured the key city of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine — which Kyiv denied — as Putin visited an army command post to speak with officers.
A Russian strike on the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine on Thursday killed five people and wounded three others, emergency services said.
Since returning to the White House, Trump’s position on the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically back and forth.
He rowed with Zelensky in the Oval Office in February but has also shown increasing frustration with Putin after a summit in Alaska produced no results.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
