{"id":273914,"date":"2025-11-20T16:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/273914\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T16:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:57:10","slug":"ukraine-us-russian-peace-proposal-is-absurd-and-unacceptable-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/273914\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine: US-Russian peace proposal is \u2018absurd\u2019 and unacceptable | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new US-Russian peace proposal to end the war in Ukraine<\/a> has been dismissed as \u201cabsurd\u201d and unacceptable by officials in Kyiv amid talks between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a high-ranking US army delegation.<\/p>\n

They said the proposal reportedly drafted by Kirill Dmitriev, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff was a \u201cprovocation\u201d, the aim of which was to stir up division and \u201cdisorientate\u201d Ukraine\u2019s allies<\/a>, they added<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are currently no signs that the Kremlin is ready for serious negotiations. Putin is trying to stall for time and avoid US sanctions,\u201d Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of Ukraine\u2019s foreign policy parliamentary committee, said<\/a>. He dismissed Dmitriev as a \u201cnobody\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s first deputy foreign minister Sergiy Kyslytsya called the initiative unrealistic<\/a>. He suggested it was a classic Soviet-style information operation to influence opinion and sow panic.<\/p>\n

According to media reports, the sweeping 28-point proposal closely resembles demands made by Moscow soon after its full-scale invasion in early 2022. It was reportedly drawn up by Russian and US officials, with support from Donald Trump. Kyiv was not consulted. One European diplomat said they only learned of the plan when they turned on the news.<\/p>\n

It envisages Ukraine giving up the northern part of the Donbas region, which it controls, to Russia<\/a>, and cutting the size of its army in half. Ukraine would also be forced to relinquish its long-range weapons, used to strike military targets inside Russia.<\/p>\n

No foreign troops would be allowed on Ukrainian soil, a condition that rules out a post-deal peacekeeping force led by the UK and France. But the US would provide unspecified security guarantees, according to Axios<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Russian language and Russian orthodox church would be given formal status under longstanding Kremlin demands.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian officials said the document amounted to Ukraine\u2019s capitulation and an effective end to its sovereignty. It comes nearly four years after Russian troops tried, and failed, to seize Kyiv, and as efforts by the Trump administration to end the conflict remain stalled.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Zelenskyy met the US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, whom Trump named last week as a \u201cspecial representative\u201d. Driscoll is on a fact-finding mission to Kyiv, with a brief to examine the war and Ukrainian drone production. It is unclear if the talks included the US\u2019s draft plan.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian defence minister, Denys Shmyhal (right), meeting the US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, in Kyiv. Photograph: AP<\/p>\n

Keith Kellogg, Trump\u2019s special representative to Ukraine, has reportedly announced his resignation, saying he would leave in January after a year in the post. Kellogg is regarded as being broadly sympathetic to Ukraine and has been consequently left out of direct US-Russian talks.<\/p>\n

The White House\u2019s renewed push to force Ukraine to make significant concessions in pursuit of \u201cpeace\u201d comes at a difficult time for Zelenskyy, who is embroiled in the biggest political scandal since he became president in 2019.<\/p>\n

His former business partner Timur Mindich<\/a> and at least two government ministers<\/a> are accused of involvement in a large-scale bribery scheme. Several deputies from Zelenskyy\u2019s own Servant of the People party have called on the president to dismiss Andriy Yermak, his powerful chief of staff.<\/p>\n

One western diplomat said the Russians were seeking to take advantage of Ukraine\u2019s domestic crisis. \u201cIt seems Dmitriev has spun this plan at a time when Zelenskyy is weak. The Russians are good at exploiting things,\u201d they said. \u201cIt feels like every other Russian plan. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to fly with Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diplomat said the Kremlin\u2019s demands concerning the Russian language were a \u201chook\u201d it could later exploit. The proposal did not offer the kind of security assurances Ukraine would need from the US and its European allies for any deal to stick, they added.<\/p>\n

European leaders meeting in Brussels said they had not been warned in advance about the latest White House initiative. The Trump administration no longer provides direct military aid to Kyiv, a fact that reduces its ability to impose a Moscow-friendly peace settlement on Ukraine, they noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe commend peace efforts, but Europe is the main supporter of Ukraine and it\u2019s, of course, Europe\u2019s security that\u2019s at stake. So we expect to be consulted,\u201d Poland\u2019s foreign minister, Rados\u0142aw Sikorski, said.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said Europe welcomed any efforts to achieve a long-lasting and just settlement of the war, but stressed: \u201cFor any plan to work, it needs Ukrainians and Europeans on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kallas said the Dmitriev-Witkoff proposal did not envisage Russia making any concessions. \u201cWe have to understand that in this war, there is one aggressor and one victim. If Russia really wanted peace, it could have agreed to an unconditional ceasefire already some time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The British government said it backed Trump\u2019s desire to \u201cbring this barbaric war to an end\u201d. But it emphasised that \u201conly the Ukrainian people can determine their future\u201d and said Russia could end the fighting tomorrow by pulling out troops and ending its \u201cillegal invasion\u201d.<\/p>\n

The White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, declined to comment on the peace plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would agree that that\u2019s an issue which the president has continued to put at the forefront of our foreign policy goal, which is to reach a settlement in the Ukraine-Russia war, so that we can have peace in Europe and we can end the killing and the slaughter of so many innocents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"MomentMoment Russian missile strikes apartment block in Ukraine \u2013 video<\/p>\n

US efforts to broker peace have hit roadblocks since Trump met Putin in Alaska<\/a> in August. The US president subsequently imposed sanctions on Russia\u2019s oil industry<\/a>, in an apparent attempt to push Putin to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

Trump said last month that he was putting on hold his plan<\/a> for a meeting with the Russian president in Budapest because he didn\u2019t want it to be a \u201cwaste of time\u201d. On Wednesday, Zelenskyy and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, met in Ankara, saying they were committed to finding a peaceful settlement.<\/p>\n

In recent months Russia has increased its systematic attacks<\/a> on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure, plunging much of the country into darkness. On Wednesday it bombed several western cities, including Ternopil, where 26 people, including three children, were killed in their homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new US-Russian peace proposal to end the war in Ukraine has been dismissed as \u201cabsurd\u201d and unacceptable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-273914","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\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}