‘US tells Zelensky: You have to simply accept peace cope with Russia that sees you hand over land and reduce your military’

The United States has signalled to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky that he has to accept a deal with Russia that would see Ukraine hand over land to Russia. 

Along with giving up land, Kyiv would have to weapons and reduce its army. 

The sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the proposals included cutting the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, among other things. Washington wants Kyiv to accept the main points, the sources said. 

It comes amid reports that the US and Russia have been secretly thrashing out a new 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, similar to the Gaza deal.

But Kyiv had no role in preparing the proposals, a senior Ukrainian source told Reuters.

It is a roadmap inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump‘s plan for the Gaza ceasefire, Axios reported, citing U.S. and Russian officials.

The proposal would consist of ‘peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, security in Europe, and future U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine’. 

The U.S. special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is leading the formation of the plan and ‘has discussed it extensively with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev,’ Axios reported, citing a U.S. official.

The report also said Witkoff discussed the plan with Rustem Umerov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s security advisor, earlier this week in Miami.

A U.S. official also reportedly said the White House had started to brief European officials on the proposal. 

Asked about the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday there were no developments to announce on possible peace proposals since Putin and Trump held a summit in Alaska in August.

It is a roadmap inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump ‘s plan for the Gaza ceasefire

Putin set out his core conditions in June 2024, demanding Kyiv renounce plans to join the U.S.-led NATO military alliance and withdraw troops from four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia

Announcing plans to visit Turkey, Zelensky said on Tuesday he was preparing to ‘reinvigorate negotiations’

‘So far there are no innovations on this that can be reported to you,’ Peskov said.

A senior Ukrainian official told Reuters that Kyiv had received ‘signals’ about a set of U.S. proposals to end the war that Washington has discussed with Russia. 

Ukraine has had no role in preparing the proposals, the source said.

Putin set out his core conditions in June 2024, demanding Kyiv renounce plans to join the U.S.-led NATO military alliance and withdraw troops from four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia. 

Moscow has given no indication that it has dropped any of those demands and Ukraine says it will not accept them.

Zelensky will hold talks in Turkey on Wednesday and meet U.S. Army officials in Kyiv on Thursday in a new drive to revive peace negotiations with Russia.

No face-to-face talks have taken place between Kyiv and Moscow since a meeting in Istanbul in July and Russian forces have pressed on with Moscow’s nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine, killing 19 people in strikes overnight.

Efforts to revive peace negotiations appear to be gaining momentum although Moscow has shown no sign of changing its terms for ending the war. 

Announcing plans to visit Turkey, Zelensky said on Tuesday he was preparing to ‘reinvigorate negotiations’ and would discuss with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan how to bring a ‘just peace’ to Ukraine.

‘Doing everything possible to bring the end of the war closer is Ukraine’s top priority,’ he said of the meetings in Turkey.

Turkey, a NATO member that has remained close to both sides, hosted an initial round of peace talks in the early weeks of the war in 2022, the only such talks until this year when Trump launched a new bid to end the fighting.

The Kremlin said Russian representatives would not be involved in the talks but that Putin was open to conversations with the United States and Turkey about the results of the discussions.

Trump’s efforts to broker an end to the war have so far been unsuccessful and he last month abruptly cancelled a planned summit with Putin in Budapest.

Russian forces control about 19 per cent of Ukrainian territory and are grinding forwards, while carrying out frequent attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure as winter approaches.