European countries pushed back on Thursday against a United States-backed peace plan for Ukraine that sources said would require Kyiv to give up more land and partially disarm, conditions long seen by Ukraine’s allies as tantamount to capitulation.
Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that Washington had signalled to President Volodymyr Zelensky that Ukraine must accept a US-drafted framework to end the war, which includes territorial concessions and curbs to Ukraine’s armed forces.
The sources spoke on condition they not be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The acceleration in American diplomacy comes at an awkward juncture for Kyiv, with its troops on the back foot at the front and Zelensky’s government undermined by a corruption scandal. Parliament fired two cabinet ministers on Wednesday.
A Ukrainian soldier sits in a pickup truck before a combat mission near the frontline town of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on November 20. — Reuters
Moscow played down any new US initiative.
“Consultations are not currently underway. There are contacts, of course, but there is no process that could be called consultations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
He said Russia had nothing to add beyond the position President Vladimir Putin laid out at a summit with US President Donald Trump in August, adding that any peace deal must address the “root causes of the conflict”, a phrase Moscow has long used to refer to its demands.
‘Peace cannot be capitulation,’ says France
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels were careful not to comment in too much detail about a US peace plan that has not been made public. But they made clear they would not accept demands for punishing concessions from Kyiv.
“Ukrainians want peace — a just peace that respects everyone’s sovereignty, a durable peace that can’t be called into question by future aggression,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot. “But peace cannot be a capitulation.”
The White House has not commented on the reported proposals.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that Washington would “continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict”.
”Achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions,” Rubio wrote.
