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Ukraine is preparing to present a revised peace plan to the United States to avoid giving up territory to Russia.
While President Volodymyr Zelensky once again ruled out the possibility of giving up territory, saying he “does not have the authority to do so” under Ukrainian and international law, Ukraine is preparing to propose an alternative to the United States.
President Zelensky made these remarks on the 8th while meeting with European and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders as part of a joint effort to prevent the United States from supporting a peace plan that would involve Ukraine giving up key territory. European allies fear that such a peace plan would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future invasion.
Meanwhile, in Sumy Oblast, northwestern Ukraine, a power outage continued overnight due to a Russian drone attack.
Governor Sumy explained that Russia recently attacked under the cover of night, causing about 10 drones to crash into power infrastructure. No casualties were reported.
Last weekend, a few days before President Zelenskyy embarked on his current European tour, the U.S. and Ukrainian negotiating teams conducted intensive negotiations. However, it failed to reach an agreement acceptable to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s senior adviser Rustem Umerov previously announced via Telegram that he would share the contents of the conversation between the U.S. negotiation team and Russian President Putin, and President Zelenskyy was scheduled to receive a report on the private meeting from him on the 8th.
According to a report by AFP, President Zelenskyy said at a press conference that his country’s negotiating team could send a new negotiation plan to the United States as early as December 9.
Regarding the issue of territorial concessions, he said, “Russia continues to pressure us to give up our territory, but we have no intention of giving up anything.”
President Zelenskyy then added, “We have no right to do that, neither under Ukrainian law, nor under the Constitution, nor under international law,” adding, “And we have no moral right to do so.”
President Zelenskyy has long emphasized that any border changes in Ukraine require approval through a referendum.
Meanwhile, according to the Interpex-Ukrainian news agency, President Zelenskyy announced that the United States’ initial peace plan, which consisted of 28 items, had been reduced to 20 items. Ukrainian and European leaders opposed the initial peace plan, saying it was too advantageous to Russia.
President Zelenskyy added that “Ukraine-friendly” content had not been removed from the draft and that there had been no “concessions” on territorial issues. He went on to point out that control of the eastern Donbas region and the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant were among the “most sensitive” issues.
It is reported that the draft peace plan supported by the United States includes a clause in which Ukraine would hand over the Donbas region, which the Russian military has not been able to fully control even after almost four years of war, to Russia. It also included the agreement that Russia and Ukraine would share the energy produced at Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe.
Ukrainian and European sides have insisted that the document’s content has been improving in recent weeks and praised the Trump administration’s mediation efforts to end the war.
However, the meeting hastily held at the British Prime Minister’s Office on the 8th is interpreted as the allies’ support for Ukraine to counter pressure from the White House. The meeting was attended by President Zelenskyy, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The Prime Minister’s Office said they all agreed that the US-led end-of-war negotiations were a “crucial moment” to strengthen support for Ukraine, and reiterated the call for “a just and sustainable peace…including strong security guarantees.”
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The form of future security guarantee measures for Ukraine is also one of the issues on which differences of opinion have not been resolved in the current negotiations.
Since the peace agreement was signed, efforts have been made to form an international coalition to continue supporting Ukraine militarily, but its specific form is not yet clear.
Britain and France have proposed sending international troops to Ukraine, but major European defense powers, including Germany and Italy, are skeptical about this.
It is also unclear to what extent the United States will support Ukraine’s defense system in the future.
Meanwhile, after the London meeting, President Zelenskiy moved to Brussels, Belgium, where he met NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Italy on the 9th.
Meanwhile, the Russian Kremlin insisted that its talks with the U.S. negotiating team were constructive, even though it showed no signs of backing down from the goals it set out for a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Previously, on the 7th, U.S. President Donald Trump made a statement suggesting that he views President Zelenskyy as a major obstacle to concluding a peace agreement in Ukraine. Ending the war in Ukraine is one of President Trump’s key diplomatic goals, and during his 2024 presidential campaign, he claimed that he could quickly achieve this if he becomes president.
President Trump said that Russia was “ok” with the peace plan presented by the United States to both sides, adding, “I was somewhat disappointed that President Zelenskyy did not read it.”
At about the same time, President Zelenskyy announced that he was awaiting a report from Umerov, who had completed three days of talks with his American counterpart in Miami.
He then emphasized, “Some issues can only be discussed when we meet in person.”
