Trump Hints Big Progress in Ukraine Peace Talks as Europe Says Momentum Is Building
Donald Trump has announced that 'something good is happening' amid the Ukraine-Russia peace talks and has hinted that 'big progress is being made'. In a post on Truth Social, the US President wrote: 'Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine???' 'Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!' The world watches as Ukraine and the United States edge toward a peace framework, after Kyiv removed several Kremlin demands from an earlier draft that Kyiv has described as non-negotiable 'red lines'. It comes as Ukraine and the US move closer towards agreeing on a peace plan, after removing some of the Kremlin's demands in an earlier proposal draft that Kyiv has insisted are non-negotiable 'red lines'. Kyiv's non-starters for negotiations are the formal recognition of occupied territories, limits on defence forces, and restrictions on Ukraine's future alliances, the speaker of the country's parliament said on Monday. Those positions have been long stated by Ukraine, but run counter to the proposals in the controversial 28-point plan that was leaked last week, sparking uproar among European leaders. Speaking at the Crimea Platform summit in Sweden, speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk also said membership of the EU and NATO must be elements of Ukraine's security guarantees and any peace plan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed 'important steps' after a Geneva summit with the US, but said more was needed to end a nearly four-year war following the Russian invasion. 'In the steps we have coordinated with the side of the US, we've managed to keep extremely sensitive points,' Zelensky told a virtual conference in Sweden, but added that 'to achieve real peace, more is needed'. Zelensky also said at another virtual event that 'Diplomacy has been reinvigorated, and that's good. Very good' late Sunday after the Geneva talks. Donald Trump on Saturday accused Ukrainian leaders of showing 'zero gratitude' to the US for its efforts in trying to secure peace. The US Secretary of State confirmed: 'We've had probably the most productive and meaningful meeting so far in this entire process'. US and Ukrainian negotiators drew up an 'updated and refined peace framework' in Switzerland, with a joint statement saying the meeting had been 'highly productive'. Positive accounts of the meeting followed Trump's furious accusation that Ukraine's leaders were showing 'zero gratitude' for his efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war. European officials welcomed Monday what they said were steps in the right direction at talks in Geneva on US peace proposals seen as heavily favoring Russia, but they offered few details and warned the discussions still have a long way to go. 'The negotiations were a step forward, but there are still major issues which remain to be resolved,' Finnish President Alexander Stubb wrote on social platform X about Sunday's meeting in Switzerland. The surprise emergence of the peace plan coincided with a bleak period for Zelensky, with the war less than three months shy of its fourth anniversary. It is under severe strain on the front line against Russia's bigger army, it is short of money, and Zelensky is trying to defuse a major corruption scandal that has tainted his government. The Geneva meeting offered some hope for Kyiv. 'Diplomacy has been reinvigorated, and that's good. Very good,' Zelensky said late Sunday. It wasn't clear whether the talks would continue on Monday. Crucially, the Kremlin has not yet voiced its opinion on the latest developments. German Foreign Minister Johannes Wadephul said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who directed the talks in Switzerland, 'made decisive positive contributions to ensuring that this plan can be accepted by both the European and Ukrainian sides'. 'I would like to say that all issues concerning Europe or NATO have been removed from this plan, which is a decisive success that we achieved yesterday,' he told public broadcaster Deutschlandradio. After it was leaked last week, Trump's peace deal was cautiously welcomed by Moscow, but not by leaders in Kyiv and Europe, who saw it as handing over unprecedented political power to the Kremlin over Ukraine. It capitulated to Vladimir Putin's long-standing maximalist demands for control over territory, leaving Ukraine defenseless in the face of future aggression. Some of its most alarming details were proposals for Ukraine to cut its army from 900,000 to 600,000 personnel, give up the entirety of the eastern Donbas region (15 per cent of which it still controls), and enshrine in its constitution that it will never join NATO. Meanwhile, the West would lift sanctions on Russia and Moscow would be invited back into the G8. 'They want to stop the war and want Ukraine to pay the price,' one Ukrainian source told Reuters, while a senior lawmaker from Zelensky's party said the country was 'f****** mind-blown'. In a speech on Friday, the Ukrainian President said Ukraine 'might face a very difficult choice: either losing dignity, or risk losing a key partner', adding that 'today is one of the most difficult moments in our history'. Adding to the Ukrainian fury were reports that the draft deal was originally written in Russian and later translated to English. Contributing to the speculations, Mike Rounds, a Republican senator from South Dakota, wrote on X: 'This administration was not responsible for this release in its current form. They want to utilise it as a starting point.' He added: 'It looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with.' The White House has denied the accusations. On Saturday, leaders from Europe, Canada and Japan signed a joint statement at the G20 summit in South Africa, saying that the peace deal had elements 'essential for a just and lasting peace', but would 'require additional work', citing concerns over territory and limits on Ukraine's army. Sir Keir, alongside Friedrich Merz and Emmanuel Macron, the German and French leaders, criticised elements of the draft, warning that it would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attacks from Moscow. Speaking at the G20 summit, Sir Keir said he was 'concerned' about the notion of a military cap, arguing that it was 'fundamental that Ukraine has to be able to defend itself if there’s a ceasefire'. 'Obviously, I think it should be done as soon as possible, but it’s got to be a just and lasting peace, and so we’ve got to get it right,' he said. But after originally putting pressure on Kyiv to accept the deal by November 27, the soured relations between the US and Ukraine improved on Sunday, following fruitful negotiations in Geneva. Rubio said there had been a 'tremendous amount of progress' on delivering the peace deal, but there was 'still some work to be done' before any final draft could be sent to Putin. 'We've had probably the most productive and meaningful meeting so far in this entire process,' he said. The EU also submitted a modified version of the US's peace plan for Ukraine that pushed back on proposed limits to Kyiv's armed forces and territorial concessions. The document, drafted by the so-called European E3 powers - Britain, France and Germany - proposes that Ukraine's military be capped at 800,000 'in peacetime' rather than a blanket cap of 600,000. It also says 'negotiations on territorial swaps will start from the Line of Contact', rather than pre-determining that certain areas should be recognised as 'de facto Russian', as the US plan suggests. It proposes that Ukraine receive a security guarantee from the United States similar to NATO's Article 5 clause. It pushes back on the US proposal for the use of Russian assets frozen in the West, primarily in the European Union. 'Ukraine will be fully reconstructed and compensated financially, including through Russian sovereign assets that will remain frozen until Russia compensates damage to Ukraine,' the document says. Rubio denied any knowledge of the counter-proposal's existence. EU chief Antonio Costa said Monday he spoke with Zelensky ahead of an emergency meeting of European Union leaders to discuss the updated plan for Ukraine. 'Spoke with President Zelensky ahead of this morning's informal EU leaders' meeting on Ukraine peace efforts, to get his assessment of the situation,' Costa said on X. 'A united and coordinated EU position is key in ensuring a good outcome of peace negotiations - for Ukraine and for Europe,' he said ahead of the meeting to be held on the sidelines of a summit in Angola. The Kremlin said Monday it was not informed on results of talks between U.S., Ukrainian and European officials in Geneva at the weekend. 'We did not receive any information,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, while adding it was aware 'adjustments' were made to a US plan to end the conflict with Kyiv that Moscow had welcomed. Despite peace negotiations, Russia has shown no sign of stopping its relentless attacks on Ukraine after almost four years of war. Russian drones hit residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city overnight, killing four people and wounding 13, including two children, authorities said. Eight residential buildings, an educational facility and power lines were damaged in the attack, according to the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov. Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office published photos showing homes on fire, rubble scattered across backyards and firefighters and war crimes prosecutors working on site. Ukraine's air force says Russia fired 162 strikes and decoy drones over the country overnight. Russia also resumed its nighttime drone attacks on Ukraine's civilian and port infrastructure close to Romania's border, the NATO member's defense ministry said Monday. Romania scrambled two Eurofighter Typhoon jets and two F-16s in response to drones near its border, the ministry said. Under the contentious draft plan leaked last week, the US would recognise Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions as well as Moscow-annexed Crimea, as 'de facto Russian'. 'Ukrainian forces will withdraw from the part of Donetsk Oblast that they currently control,' the plan envisages. The Donetsk region has been the epicentre of fighting, with tens of thousands of troops killed on both sides. Despite still controlling around 14.5 per cent of the territory in the mineral and coal-rich eastern Donbas region, Ukraine will be forced to surrender the entirety of its industrial heartland. The frontline would be frozen in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which are both partly occupied by Moscow. Russia would be required to give up small pockets of territory it has seized in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Ukraine would receive unspecified 'reliable security guarantees' while at the same time commit to cutting the size of its army. European jets would be be stationed in neighbouring NATO-member Poland. The country would be banned from possessing long-range missiles, capable of hitting St Petersburg or Moscow. And $100 billion of Russia's frozen funds - sanctioned after its full-scale invasion in February 2022 - would go towards US-led reconstruction efforts, with Europe contributing another $100 billion. The US would reap the benefits of the rebuilding projects, receiving 50 per cent of profits. The Russian economy would also receive a boost as part of a new long-term economic cooperation agreement with the US, which will involve rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic. Aside for getting to keep its conquered territory, the plan also calls for Moscow, which is under massive Western sanctions for more than three years, to be 're-integrated into the global economy'. The plan would also pile pressure on Zelensky, requiring elections to be held in Ukraine within 100 days - another key demand being pushed by Moscow, which has repeatedly and openly called for the Ukrainian leader to be toppled.
Kyiv's red lines and Western guarantees; EU/NATO membership as security guarantees
Kyiv’s non-starters for negotiations include the formal recognition of occupied territories, limits on defence forces, and restrictions on Ukraine's future alliances, the speaker of the country's parliament said on Monday. Those positions have long been stated by Ukraine, but run counter to the proposals in the controversial 28-point plan that was leaked last week, sparking uproar among European leaders. Speaking at the Crimea Platform summit in Sweden, speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk also said membership of the EU and NATO must be elements of Ukraine's security guarantees and any peace plan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed 'important steps' after a Geneva summit with the US, but said more was needed to end a nearly four-year war following the Russian invasion. 'In the steps we have coordinated with the side of the US, we've managed to keep extremely sensitive points,' Zelensky told a virtual conference in Sweden, but added that 'to achieve real peace, more is needed'. Zelensky also said at another virtual event that 'Diplomacy has been reinvigorated, and that's good. Very good' late Sunday after the Geneva talks. It wasn't clear whether the talks would continue on Monday. Crucially, the Kremlin has not yet voiced its opinion on the latest developments. German Foreign Minister Johannes Wadephul said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who directed the talks in Switzerland, 'made decisive positive contributions to ensuring that this plan can be accepted by both the European and Ukrainian sides'. 'I would like to say that all issues concerning Europe or NATO have been removed from this plan, which is a decisive success that we achieved yesterday,' he told public broadcaster Deutschlandradio. After it was leaked last week, Trump's peace deal was cautiously welcomed by Moscow, but not by leaders in Kyiv and Europe, who saw it as handing over unprecedented political power to the Kremlin over Ukraine. It capitulated to Vladimir Putin's long-standing maximalist demands for control over territory, leaving Ukraine defenseless in the face of future aggression. Some of its most alarming details were proposals for Ukraine to cut its army from 900,000 to 600,000 personnel, give up the entirety of the eastern Donbas region (15 per cent of which it still controls), and enshrine in its constitution that it will never join NATO. Meanwhile, the West would lift sanctions on Russia and Moscow would be invited back into the G8.
The leaked 28-point plan and the international response
Under the contentious draft plan leaked last week, the US would recognise Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions as well as Moscow-annexed Crimea, as 'de facto Russian'. 'Ukrainian forces will withdraw from the part of Donetsk Oblast that they currently control,' the plan envisages. The Donetsk region has been the epicentre of fighting, with tens of thousands of troops killed on both sides. Despite still controlling around 14.5 per cent of the territory in the mineral and coal-rich eastern Donbas region, Ukraine will be forced to surrender the entirety of its industrial heartland. The frontline would be frozen in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which are both partly occupied by Moscow. Russia would be required to give up small pockets of territory it has seized in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Ukraine would receive unspecified 'reliable security guarantees' while at the same time commit to cutting the size of its army. European jets would be be stationed in neighbouring NATO-member Poland. The country would be banned from possessing long-range missiles, capable of hitting St Petersburg or Moscow. And $100 billion of Russia's frozen funds - sanctioned after its full-scale invasion in February 2022 - would go towards US-led reconstruction efforts, with Europe contributing another $100 billion. The US would reap the benefits of the rebuilding projects, receiving 50 per cent of profits. The Russian economy would also receive a boost as part of a new long-term economic cooperation agreement with the US, which will involve rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic. Aside from getting to keep its conquered territory, the plan also calls for Moscow, which is under massive Western sanctions for more than three years, to be 're-integrated into the global economy'. The plan would also pile pressure on Zelensky, requiring elections to be held in Ukraine within 100 days - another key demand being pushed by Moscow, which has repeatedly and openly called for the Ukrainian leader to be toppled.
