Russia Ukraine Monitoring Desk ISLAMABAD: Negotiations between the US and Ukraine in Geneva have concluded. According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the US is making some changes to the peace plan, and today’s meetings were “the most productive and most significant.”
He shares , “We have a very good working product that has already been built upon the input of all relevant parties involved here, and we were able to go through some of those points now, point by point. And I think we made good progress.”
Telegraph reported that Vladimir Putin could return to the world stage under a European peace plan that agrees to allow Russia back into the G8.
The offer was made in a counter-proposal to Donald Trump’s 28-point plan, which heavily favoured Russia.
The European plan contains several concessions, including a cap on the size of Ukraine’s army and a commitment to elections that could see Volodymyr Zelensky removed from power – a key demand of Moscow.
Following an emergency summit in Geneva, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said on Sunday night that the US was now “making some changes” to its peace plan.
He added: “I think this is a very, very meaningful, I would say probably best meeting and day we’ve had so far in this entire process, going back to when we first came to office in January.”
The counter-proposal was published after the US president said Ukraine had shown “zero gratitude” for American efforts to end the war.
Mr Trump still has to sign off on the deal, Mr Rubio said. Russia, which has repeatedly changed its demands, also has to sign off on it.
Under the European plan, Russia is “to be progressively re-integrated into the global economy”. The plan adds that the country could rejoin the G8.
The deal also states that the “size of Ukraine military is to be capped at 800,000 in peacetime”, whereas an earlier version of the European plan included no cap. The US-Russian proposal asked for a 600,000 cap.
The deal adds: “Ukraine will hold elections as soon as possible after the signing of the peace agreement.”
However, the European deal removes Russia’s demand that Ukraine gives up the eastern Donbas region.
The deal also removes a clause that would give the US 50 per cent of future profits from frozen Russian assets invested in Ukraine.
The 28-point plan drawn up by the Americans demanded that Ukraine give up large tracts of land, including territory that has not even been conquered by Russian forces.
The European counter-proposal says that “negotiations on territorial swaps will start from the line of contact” or front line.
(Trump’s plan: Territories:
a. Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk will be recognised as de facto Russian, including by the United States
b. Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will be frozen along the line of contact, which will mean de facto recognition along the line of contact
c. Russia will relinquish other agreed territories it controls outside the five regions
d. Ukrainian forces will withdraw from the part of Donetsk Oblast that they currently control, and this withdrawal zone will be considered a neutral demilitarised buffer zone, internationally recognised as territory belonging to the Russian Federation. Russian forces will not enter this demilitarised zone
Europe’s counter-offer: Ukraine commits not to recover its occupied sovereign territory through military means. Negotiations on territorial swaps will start from the line of contact)
It proposes that Ukraine should receive a security guarantee from Washington similar to Nato’s Article 5 clause.
The Europeans want Russian sovereign assets to remain frozen until Moscow pays compensation for the immense damage it has caused since its full-scale invasion.
The counter-plan was drawn up by Britain, Germany and France – the so-called European E3 powers.
Sir Keir Starmer spoke to Mr Trump on Sunday and agreed that Ukraine was facing a “critical moment”, a Downing Street spokesman said.
“The leaders discussed various aspects of the high-level discussions taking place in Geneva today on the US peace plan for Ukraine. They agreed that we all must work together at this critical moment to bring about a just and lasting peace.”
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said: “Ukraine leadership has expressed zero gratitude for our efforts.”
He also criticised Europe for not doing enough to end the conflict. He did not criticise Moscow for invdaing Ukraine in the first place.
The 28-point proposal put forward by the Trump administration has been widely criticised, even by some Republicans, as being far too favourable to Moscow.
Critics said that it read like a “wish list” for Putin. There were even claims that it had been drawn up by the Russians and then clumsily translated into English by Trump officials.
Meaghan Mobbs, the daughter of Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy to Ukraine who announced last week that he will quit his post, claimed that the peace plan was originally written in Russian.
She suggested that the document was “not originally written in English”, pointing to transliteration errors and phrasing that is commonly used by Russia’s government.
The allegations were roundly denied by Trump officials.
Mr Rubio wrote on social media that “the peace proposal was authored by the US. It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
Critics of the Trump proposal said that if accepted it would mean that Ukraine’s huge sacrifices in blood and treasure would have been in vain.
Mr Trump initially gave a deadline of Thursday – Thanksgiving – for Kyiv to accept the plan.
Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor, said he was sceptical the deadline would be met. “Right now, I’m not yet convinced we’re going to get the solution President Trump wants in the next few days.”
Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said that Europe, Canada and Japan were prepared to work on the US plan despite their reservations.
“However, before we start our work, it would be good to know for sure who is the author of the plan and where was it created,” he said.
Alexander Stubb, Finland’s president, said that he and Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, called Mr Trump early on Sunday to discuss the US plan.
On the same day, Ukrainian forces used drones to strike a power station in the Moscow region, triggering a fire and cutting off heating for thousands of people.
It was one of Kyiv’s biggest attacks to date on a power station deep inside Russia.
The drones struck the Shatura power station, about 75 miles east of the Russian capital, where the temperature was around freezing.
Video footage showed balls of flames and black smoke rising into the night sky.
Russia’s defence ministry said later that it had downed 75 Ukrainian drones, including 36 over the Black Sea and several over the Moscow region.
