{"id":194605,"date":"2025-12-16T11:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T11:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/194605\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T11:45:07","slug":"peace-plans-ready-to-be-presented-to-russia-in-days-says-zelenskyy-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/194605\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace plans ready to be presented to Russia in days, says Zelenskyy | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says proposals negotiated with US officials on a peace deal to end Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine<\/a> could be finalised within days, after which American envoys will present them to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

After two days of talks in Berlin<\/a>, US officials said on Monday they had resolved \u201c90%\u201d of the problematic issues between Russia and Ukraine, but despite the positive spin it is not clear that an end to the war is any closer, particularly as the Russian side is absent from the current talks.<\/p>\n

In the early hours of Tuesday morning the Ukrainian president said the US Congress was expected to vote on security guarantees and that he expected a finalised set of documents to be prepared \u201ctoday or tomorrow\u201d. After that, he said, the US would hold consultations with the Russians, followed by high-level meetings that could take place as soon as this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are counting on five documents. Some of them concern security guarantees: legally binding, that is, voted on and approved by the US Congress,\u201d he said in comments to journalists via WhatsApp. He said the guarantees would \u201cmirror article 5\u201d of Nato.<\/p>\n

On Monday, US officials declined to give specific details of what the security package was likely to include, and what would happen if Russia attempted to seize more land after a peace deal was reached. They did, however, confirm that the US did not plan to put boots on the ground in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Leaders of the UK, France, Germany<\/a> and eight other European countries said in a joint statement that troops from a \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d could \u201cassist in the regeneration of Ukraine\u2019s forces, in securing Ukraine\u2019s skies, and in supporting safer seas, including through operating inside Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n

They stopped short, however, of suggesting these would be guarantees that would match Nato\u2019s article 5, and in any case there is little sign that Russia is anywhere close to agreeing to the kind of package under discussion between Washington and Kyiv.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Kremlin said it had not seen the details of proposals on security guarantees, and Russia\u2019s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Russia would not agree to troops from Nato countries operating in Ukraine \u201cunder any circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n

The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Monday that peace was closer than at any time since the beginning of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion. But privately, European officials say that at this stage the talks are more about keeping the Trump White House onboard with supporting Ukraine than about reaching a lasting deal between Moscow and Kyiv.<\/p>\n

The main sticking point between the Ukrainian team and US negotiators remains the issue of land. Trump wants Ukraine to give up the parts of the Donbas region it still holds, while Ukraine wants to freeze the lines at the current point of contact. \u201cWe are discussing the territorial issue. You know it is one of the key issues. At this point, there is no consensus on it yet,\u201d Zelenskyy said after the Berlin talks.<\/p>\n

The US negotiation team, led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, has proposed a compromise solution whereby Ukraine would withdraw, but Russia would not advance and the demilitarised area would become \u201ca free economic zone\u201d. Russia has suggested that they could use police and national guard formations rather than the military, implying they would still expect to control the territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to stress once again: a \u2018free economic zone\u2019 does not mean under the control of Russia. Neither de jure nor de facto will we recognise Donbas \u2013 its temporarily occupied part \u2013 as Russian. Absolutely,\u201d said Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n

It is not clear how the two sides will proceed on the territorial issue, with Zelenskyy previously suggesting that a compromise solution such as a free economic zone could be theoretically possible if the Ukrainian people voted for it in a referendum. The critical stumbling block is likely to be when the plans are put to Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has given no sign he is willing to compromise on his war aims.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Putin rejects everything, we will end up with exactly what we are experiencing on our plane right now \u2013 turbulence,\u201d said Zelenskyy, recording the comments after his plane took off from Berlin for the Netherlands for a series of meetings on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the United States will apply sanctions pressure and provide us with more weapons if he rejects everything. I think that would be a fair request from us to the Americans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volodymyr Zelenskyy says proposals negotiated with US officials on a peace deal to end Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-194605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}