The revised US peace plan was drawn up by US, Ukrainian and European officials who gathered in Geneva on Sunday. It came in response to an initial 28-point plan put forward by the US, which heavily favoured Russia, and kick-started a flurry of international diplomacy.
The 28-point plan called on Ukraine to cede territory, limit its military, and barred the eastern European nation from joining NATO. For its part, Russia committed to no more attacks on Ukraine.
The US initially warned it would withdraw support for Ukraine if it failed to accept the 28-point plan, but has since engaged in diplomatic efforts to negotiate a new deal.
Details of the revised plan agreed by the US and Ukraine have not been made public, but it is known to be shorter than the previous document and is thought to have removed Russia’s maximalist demands.
Sources briefed on the discussions in Geneva said the new plan had been pared back to 19 points, according to the Financial Times.
What are the terms of the revised peace plan?
The details of the revised plan have not been made public, but Ukraine seems broadly in favour: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday it includes “fewer points” and incorporates “many correct elements”.
“Ukraine, the US and the Europeans have made the American proposal workable,” senior Ukrainian official familiar with the matter told AFP, adding: “It has changed significantly for the better.”
The official added that the revised plan provides for Ukraine to keep 800,000 troops – “roughly like it (the army) is now” – compared to a 600,000 limit in the first draft of the plan.
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Ukrainian and European counterproposals at talks in Geneva included leaving open the question of Ukraine’s future NATO membership and postponing discussions of territorial concessions until after a ceasefire.
It is not known if the US accepted these terms.
What ‘sensitive parts’ of the deal remain unresolved?
Even if the new plan is more favourable for Ukraine than its predecessor, there are indications that Kyiv still views the document as a work in progress.
Zelensky said Tuesday that the “the principles of this document can be expanded into deeper agreements” but that “much depends” now on Washington.
A Ukrainian official added that while Kyiv “supports the framework in essence … some of the more sensitive points remain for the discussion between presidents”.
The main sticking point is likely to be the issue of territory.
The 28-point plan required Kyiv to cede its entire eastern Donbas region, which was home to an estimated six million people before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
While Russian forces have made significant advances in the region in the past four years, a vast swath of the land remains in Ukrainian control and Kyiv has described the demand to cede the territory as unacceptable.
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But the US has sought to downplay the issue. White House Press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday said that “a few delicate” details of the plan still required discussion but were “not insurmountable”.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that, if not granted the territory via a peace agreement, Russian forces were likely to seize the Donbas.
“The way it’s going, if you look, it’s just moving in one direction,” Trump said. “So eventually that’s land that over the next couple of months might be gotten by Russia anyway.”
Analysts at the independent Institute for the Study of War have estimated it would take several years for the Russian military to completely seize the territory, based on its current rate of advances.
Has Trump endorsed the revised plan?
Trump on Tuesday said the new plan is “fine-tuned” and that a deal on the war in Ukraine was getting “close”.
However, in a social media post, the US President also acknowledged that the negotiations are not yet in their final stages – the point at which he hopes to meet with both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
“I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelensky and President [Vladimir] Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages,” Trump said.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening aboard Air Force One, Trump said resolving the war was difficult, and described the former 28-point plan as a work in progress. “That was not a plan – it was a concept,” Trump said.
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How has Russia reacted to the revised peace plan?
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that Russia has seen the revised plan and that it requires “serious analysis” by Moscow.
“We saw it, it was passed on to us, but there haven’t been any discussions yet,” Ushakov told a state TV reporter. “Some aspects can be viewed positively, but many require specialised discussion among experts,” he added.
When asked by reporters on Wednesday if a peace deal was close, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered “it’s premature to say that yet,” the Interfax news agency reported.
Although Trump said that Moscow had agreed to some concessions on the 28-point peace plan in discussions with US negotiators, Ushakov said that Russian officials did not discuss the revised plan with US officials whom they met in Abu Dhabi on Monday and Tuesday, directly after the US-Ukraine talks in Geneva.
What is the deadline for the Ukraine peace deal?
Trump initially said he wanted the Ukraine to agree to a US-backed peace deal by Thanksgiving, on Thursday November 27.
The US president has since backed away from this deadline, saying on Tuesday: “The deadline for me is when it’s over.”
Nonetheless the US is still pressing negotiations with both sides.
Trump said his envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Putin in Moscow next week and that his son-in-law Jared Kushner was also involved. US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll will meet with Ukrainian officials.
Zelensky could also visit the US in the next few days to finalise a deal with Trump, Kyiv’s national security chief Rustem Umerov said Tuesday, though there was no immediate confirmation of such a trip from the US side.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
