Ukraine is preparing to present a revised peace plan to the White House after Volodymyr Zelensky ruled out surrendering territory to Vladimir Putin.
The Ukrainian president said the new proposal now comprises 20 points – down from 28 – after some ‘obvious anti-Ukrainian points were removed’.
But he said there was still no agreement on giving up territory – something that Donald Trump believes is necessary for peace but Ukraine and Europe have long resisted.
‘We have no legal right – under Ukrainian law, under our constitution, under international law,’ the leader said. ‘Honestly, we have no moral right, either.’
One of the most contentious points in the initial US-brokered 28-point deal involved Ukraine making land concessions – including Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk – which would be recognised as official Russian territories.
On security guarantees, Zelensky said the main questions to be resolved are: ‘What if after the end of the war, Russia will start another aggression? What will the partners be ready for? What could Ukraine count on?’
He said the answers to these questions ‘must be in the core of the security guarantees for Ukraine.’
This comes as Ukraine’s European allies – prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz put on a show of support for Zelensky at Downing Street on Monday.
‘The leaders all agreed that now is a critical moment and that we must continue to ramp up support to Ukraine and economic pressure on Putin to bring an end to this barbaric war,’ Starmer’s office said in a statement.
His spokesperson, Tom Wells, added: ‘This is the furthest we’ve got in four years, and we welcome the fact that these talks are continuing at every level.’
He added that ‘intensive work’ will continue in the days ahead, but that ‘there are still outstanding issues.’
Macron’s office said the meeting allowed the quartet to ‘continue joint work on the US plan in order to complement it with European contributions, in close coordination with Ukraine.’
Merz, meanwhile, said he was ‘skeptical’ about some details in documents released by the US.
He said: ‘We have to talk about it. That’s why we are here. The coming days – could be a decisive time for all of us.’
The meeting between Zelensky, Starmer, Macron and Merz came as Trump appeared frustrated with the Ukrainian leader, claiming that he ‘has not yet read the proposal.’
Zelensky said that Trump ‘certainly wants to end the war. … Surely, he has his own vision. We live here, from within we see details and nuances, we perceive everything much deeper, because this is our motherland.’
Away from continued negotiations over the peace plan, one of Russia’s top generals, Valery Gerasimov, said that his forces were advancing along the entire frontline in Ukraine and were targeting surrounded Ukrainian troops in the town of Myrnohrad.
In a command post meeting with officers of the Centre Grouping which is fighting in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, Gerasimov said Putin had ordered the defeat of Ukrainian forces in Myrnohrad, a town with a pre-war population of some 46,000 people to the east of Pokrovsk.
Russia had taken control of more than 30% of Myrnohrad’s buildings, the general claimed.
Russia, which uses the Soviet-era name of Krasnoarmeysk to refer to the neighbouring Pokrovsk, says it has taken the whole of the city and claims to have also encircled Ukrainian forces in Myrnohrad, which Russians call Dimitrov.
Ukraine has repeatedly denied Russian claims that Pokrovsk has fallen and says it forces still hold part of the city and are fighting back in Myrnohrad.
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