GENEVA — Talks on a Ukraine peace plan crept forward on Monday as U.S., Ukrainian, and European officials concluded three days of negotiations over the controversial American blueprint to put the brakes on Russia’s full-fledged invasion. Delegates said they had firmed up the groundwork for a “refined peace framework” that could help bridge gaps with Europe and be presented to Moscow as the basis for ending the war, Nov. 24, 2025.
Officials briefed on the updated Ukraine peace plan, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the tract scales back some of the most contentious U.S. demands but does nothing to bring U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for a quick deal off the table. One Reuters report described how Kyiv and its allies had called the initial 28-point proposal a “Kremlin wish list,” before negotiators agreed to water it down in Geneva.
In a cautiously worded joint statement, the United States and Ukraine declared the Geneva talks to have been “productive” and that any peace plan for Ukraine must be in line with “full implementation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.” The statement pledged intensive follow-up work in the days ahead, and vowed “to consult closely with other European partners as negotiations progress.
European governments have shared their own annex to the Ukraine peace plan, which would water down some territorial concessions, strip out clauses limiting Kyiv’s future troop levels, and insert a U.S. security guarantee should Russia attack again. European leaders say the aim is to cement Western support and prevent any settlement that involves trading territory in Ukraine for a temporary cease-fire.
Moscow has reacted coolly to the European draft. In a separate report from Moscow, Reuters cited Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov describing the European counter-proposal as “completely unconstructive” and saying it “does not work for us,” just moments after indicating that many components of the original U.S. proposal appear palatable.
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for his part, has reiterated that Russia has not yet received the updated texts in an official form and would not “be guided by media reports alone” regarding any Ukraine peace plan. He cautioned that no meetings are scheduled this week with U.S. negotiators, stressing that Moscow still sees the initiative largely as American-led rather than truly multilateral.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for his part, has said any Ukraine peace plan must compel Russia to “pay in full” for the destruction incurred as a result of its 2022 invasion and not legitimize land grabs. Appealing to foreign parliaments in recent days, he has sought decisions on the use of frozen Russian assets and ruled out returning occupied land.
While European leaders have said the Geneva talks provide “new momentum,” they also stress that peace cannot be achieved at the expense of Ukraine’s weakness. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk are hammering home the message that any peace plan on Ukraine that restricts troop numbers or dictates neutrality would cross red lines in Europe, as they seek to ensure Trump remains behind Kyiv.
In Washington, the fight over the original Ukraine peace plan is still raging. A 28-point plan, reported in an ABC News investigation and leaked by the White House in response to a Freedom of Information request, would halve Ukraine’s army, outlaw long-range missiles on its soil and lock Russia’s grip across a swathe of occupied territory, leading some U.S. lawmakers to speculate that the blueprint had been composed in Moscow.
Kyiv, like many European capitals, still regards Zelenskyy’s previous roadmap as the yardstick for a fair settlement. That 10-point “peace formula,” announced at the G20 summit in 2022, would define nuclear safety, food and energy security, detainee releases, full Russian withdrawal, and accountability for war crimes, according to a detailed explainer from Reuters.
Other foreign efforts have come and gone. China’s 12-point paper, issued at the start of 2023, had urged a cease-fire and negotiations but was widely deemed vague and tilted in Russia’s favor, according to an analysis by the U.S. Institute of Peace.
African-led peace mission piggybacked between Kyiv and St. Petersburg in 2023 to advance humanitarian efforts and a roadmap to talks, but it yielded few lasting results, according to a case study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Previous Istanbul drafts in 2022 failed after it emerged they would have imposed Ukrainian neutrality and drastic military reductions (see article).
All the parties know that diplomacy is playing out against a brutal backdrop. Russian drones are still pummeling cities like Kharkiv, killing civilians even as negotiators speak terms regarded from the front lines and by U.S. allies. Ukraine is pinched by an ammunition shortfall and a corruption scandal that has hobbled Zelenskyy’s government, according to battlefield reports and allied analyses.
For now, negotiators say the Ukraine peace plan is very much a work in progress. European, U.S., and Ukrainian officials are to meet again later this week, as Trump has floated a Thanksgiving deadline for Zelenskyy’s decision and suggested he might extend it if “something good” is happening. The biggest lingering question is whether Moscow will negotiate with any final document.
