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US and Russia draw up peace plan with big concessions from Ukraine

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The U.S. and Russia have drawn up a plan aimed at ending the war in Ukraine that calls for major concessions from Kyiv, according to a person familiar with the matter, including granting some demands the Kremlin has made repeatedly since the full-scale invasion began nearly four years ago.

It was not clear what, if any, concessions the proposal asks of Russia. The same person confirmed that promises from Moscow of no further attacks are part of the framework.

In other developments, Russia’s chief military officer, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, announced that Moscow’s forces had taken full control of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, although he also said that some Ukrainian troops remained in the city.

The general staff for Ukraine’s armed forces denied Gerasimov’s claims and said that Kyiv’s forces remained in control of Kupiansk.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff have been quietly working on the peace plan for a month, receiving input from both Ukrainians and Russians on terms that are acceptable to each side, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Thursday.

She declined to comment on details of the emerging proposal, but she said U.S. President Donald Trump has been briefed on it and supports it.

“It is a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine, and we believe it should be acceptable to both sides. And we are working hard to get it done,” Leavitt said.

The latest Trump administration push for peace has piled more pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is marshaling his country’s defenses against Russia’s bigger army, visiting European leaders to ensure they continue their support for Ukraine and navigating a major corruption scandal that has caused public outrage.

U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was also in Kyiv on Thursday to give a new push to peace efforts and assess the reality on the ground in Ukraine. Zelenskyy confirmed that he had met with Driscoll and “discussed options for achieving real peace.”

“Our teams — of Ukraine and the United States — will work on the provisions of the plan to end the war. We are ready for constructive, honest and swift work,” he wrote in a post on X.

Zelenskyy’s office also said in a statement that the Ukrainian president expected to talk to Trump in coming days about diplomatic opportunities.

As reports of the Russia-U.S. peace plan emerged, blindsided European diplomats insisted they and Ukraine must be consulted.

European leaders have already been alarmed this year by indications that Trump’s administration might be sidelining them and Zelenskyy in its push to stop the fighting. Trump’s at-times conciliatory approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin has fueled those concerns, but Trump adopted a tougher line last month when he announced heavy sanctions on Russia’s vital oil sector that come into force Friday.

“For any plan to work, it needs Ukrainians and Europeans on board,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at the start of a meeting in Brussels of the 27-nation bloc’s foreign ministers. She added: “We haven’t heard of any concessions on the Russian side.”

German Foreign Minister Johannes Wadephul said he talked by phone Thursday with Witkoff and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss “our various current efforts to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and thus finally put an end to the immeasurable human suffering.”

The conversations “also focused on specific ideas that are currently being discussed,” Wadephul said in a statement. He did not elaborate.

Plan would give Russia control of the Donbas

It was not clear whether the foreign ministers had seen the peace plan, which was first reported by Axios. The proposal was drawn up by U.S. and Russian envoys, and was said to include forcing Ukraine to cede territory, a prospect Zelenskyy has ruled out.

The Trump administration’s diplomatic efforts this year to stop the fighting have so far come to nothing.

The proposal, which could still be changed, calls in part for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia and to abandon certain weaponry, according to the person who had been briefed on the contours of the plan but was not authorized to comment publicly. It would also include the rollback of some critical U.S. military assistance.

Russia, as part of the proposal, would be given effective control of the entire eastern Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland made up of the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, even though Ukraine still holds part of it. Putin has listed the capture of the Donbas as the key goal of the invasion.

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