KYIV: Ukraine and the US will soon meet in Switzerland to discuss Washington’s plan for ending the war with Russia, which currently heeds to some of Russia’s hardline demands, Kyiv said Saturday. US President Donald Trump gave Ukraine less than a week to approve the 28-point plan to end the nearly four-year conflict, which would see the invaded country ceding territory, cutting its army, and pledging to never join Nato.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s European allies, who were not included in drafting the agreement, were scrambling at the G20 summit in South Africa to come up with a counter-offer to Trump’s plan to beef up Kyiv’s positions. The unilateral US plan to end the war in Ukraine “is a basis which will require additional work”, Western leaders gathered in South Africa for a G20 summit said on Saturday.
“We are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force. We are also concerned by the proposed limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces, which would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attack,” they said in a joint statement. The text was signed by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Finland, Norway, and of the European Union, as well as the prime ministers of Canada and Japan.
The leaders said they “welcome the continued US efforts to bring peace to Ukraine” and believed the 28-point US plan “includes important elements” towards that goal. “We believe therefore that the draft is a basis which will require additional work,” the statement said. It stressed that “the implementation of elements relating to the European Union and relating to Nato would need the consent of EU and Nato members respectively”. They added: “We are ready to engage in order to ensure that a future peace is sustainable.”
“In the coming days in Switzerland we are launching consultations between senior officials of Ukraine and the United States on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement,” Rustem Umerov, who is on Ukraine’s negotiating team, wrote on social media. “This is another stage of the dialogue that has been ongoing in recent days and is primarily aimed at aligning our vision for the next steps,” added Umerov, a former defence minister, who is now the Secretary of the Security Council.
He previously led a few rounds of negotiations with Russia in Türkiye, which yielded no breakthrough. This time, Zelensky appointed his top aide, Andriy Yermak, to lead the team, according to a presidential decree. The decree said the talks will also include “representatives of the Russian Federation.” There was no immediate confirmation from Russia whether it would join the talks.
France’s Emmanuel Macron sent a sombre message to the gathering, saying “the G20 may be coming to the end of a cycle,” adding that the grouping was struggling to resolve major crises around the world. He referred specifically to a new unilateral US plan to end the war in Ukraine that accepts some of Russia’s hardline demands. Shortly before that, Macron met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines the summit, boycotted by the US, to discuss a joint response to Washington’s plan. Starmer had earlier said the aim was to “look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”. — AFP
