Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has given a positive assessment of a conversation he had with US envoys on how to end the Russia-Ukraine war.<\/p>\n
Zelensky said Thursday’s call with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, which lasted nearly an hour, had yielded “new ideas in terms of formats, meetings, and… timing on how to bring a real peace closer”.<\/p>\n
He spoke a day after giving details of an updated 20-point peace plan, agreed by US and Ukrainian envoys in Florida<\/a>. <\/p>\n Zelensky said he had asked Witkoff and Kushner to pass along Christmas greetings to US President Donald Trump “and the entire Trump family”.<\/p>\n The Kremlin said it was analysing proposals brought back from the US by a Russian envoy.<\/p>\n Trump and his envoys have been holding talks with both Ukraine and Russia in an effort to reach a deal to end the war which was started by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n There appears to have been some progress in recent days with Ukraine’s president praising the “good ideas” put forward by Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Kushner.<\/p>\n Zelensky said it had been an “active day” for his country’s diplomacy, as he went into details with the US envoys.<\/p>\n He conceded that there was still “work to be done on sensitive issues” but added that “together with the American team, we understand how to put all of this in place”.<\/p>\n Zelensky added that Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov, the country’s top security official, “will continue discussions with the American team”.<\/p>\n The 20-point peace plan agreed by the US and Ukraine is seen as an update to the initial draft prepared by Witkoff several weeks ago.<\/p>\n That draft was widely seen as heavily geared towards Russia’s maximalist pre-invasion demands, which Kyiv and its European said meant the de facto capitulation of Ukraine.<\/p>\n Describing the updated proposal on Wednesday, Zelensky had said it offered Russia the potential withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the east and the creation of a demilitarised zone in their place.<\/p>\n He said the plan now included security guarantees from the US, Nato and Europeans for a co-ordinated military response if Russia invaded Ukraine again.<\/p>\n On the key question of Ukraine’s industrial eastern Donetsk region, Zelensky said a “free economic zone” was a potential option. Any area that Ukrainian troops pulled out of would have to be policed by Ukraine, he stressed.<\/p>\n Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. They are collectively known as Donbas.<\/p>\n Zelensky has been under heavy pressure from Trump to cede all of Donbas to Russia during ongoing Washington-led peace negotiations.<\/p>\n The Ukrainian leader has so far rejected any territorial concessions, and instead demanded iron-clad security guarantees for Ukraine in any potential settlement.<\/p>\n Russian President Vladimir Putin has <\/a>repeatedly warned that Ukrainian troops must leave Donbas or Russia will seize it<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was studying the proposals brought back from the US by the Russian envoy, Kirill Dmitriev.<\/p>\n “We are examining this material, and depending on the decisions made by the head of state, we will continue our communication with the Americans,” he said.<\/p>\n While diplomatic efforts to end the conflict inch forward, fighting continues on the ground. <\/p>\n The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that it had struck one of Russia’s key oil refineries in the southern region of Rostov with cruise missiles. <\/p>\n The Novoshakhtinsk refinery near the Ukrainian border is critical for supplying fuel for Russian military operations in occupied eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n The Russian defence ministry said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Sviato-Pokrovske in the Donetsk region.<\/p>\n