The United States has presented to allies in Paris proposals for a peace agreement between russia and Ukraine, including determining the conditions for the cessation of hostilities and easing sanctions against moscow in the event of a long-term ceasefire.
Bloomberg reported this, citing sources.
Thus, according to European officials familiar with the matter, the outlines of the American plan were discussed during meetings in Paris on Thursday.
According to them, this proposal would effectively freeze the war, and the Ukrainian territories currently occupied by russia would remain under moscow's control.
In addition, Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO will also not be discussed. The sources did not provide other details, citing the confidential nature of the negotiations.
One of the officials said that the plans, which need to be further discussed with Ukraine, would not be a final settlement, and that the European allies would not recognize the occupied territories as russian.
The officials stressed that the talks would be fruitless unless the kremlin agreed to a ceasefire, and that providing Ukraine with security guarantees was crucial to securing any deal.
After Rubio spoke by phone with russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Trump and the United States “want this war to end, and have now presented to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace.”
A person familiar with the matter said Ukraine had already agreed to a ceasefire and its position was that russia must agree to it before discussing other issues. The Ukrainian delegation in Paris was tasked with discussing how any ceasefire would be monitored, as well as the issue of a peacekeeping contingent, the person said.
This week, Witkoff told Fox News that the key to a comprehensive deal revolved around “five territories,” without elaborating. Russia insists that its military seizure of parts of Ukraine since 2014, including the Crimean peninsula and large areas of four regions – the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk regions – must be recognized in any agreement.
Russia has also linked efforts to end the fighting to relief from economic sanctions and has demanded a halt to arms supplies to Ukraine as a condition for a ceasefire.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized Witkoff for "adopting the Russian strategy" and said that Trump's ambassador had no "mandate to discuss Ukrainian territories because these territories belong to our people."
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the meantime that US President Donald Trump would abandon attempts to broker a peace deal between russia and Ukraine within days unless there were clear signs that a deal could be struck.
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