What do we know about the reported US-Russian plan to end the Ukraine war?

Original article by Jakub Krupa

US and Russian officials have reportedly drafted a plan to end the war in Ukraine, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Pentagon officials in Kyiv on Thursday for discussions.

The full details are not clear but the key tenets of the 28-point deal – reported first by Axios, the FT and the New York Times – are believed to include a demand for Ukraine to cede the rest of the Russian-occupied eastern Donbas region, cut its armed forces by half and reduce or altogether abandon certain types of weaponry, particularly long-range missiles that could hit targets in Russia.

That would mean Ukraine voluntarily handing over areas of its territory to Russia that Moscow has been unable to take by force.

Kyiv would also be expected to agree to reducing or halting US military assistance. Any future deployment of western troops to Ukraine – as envisaged by the Franco-British-led “coalition of the willing” – would also be banned.

In cultural policies, the deal reportedly requires Ukraine to recognise Russian as an official state language and to grant formal status to the Russian Orthodox church, prompting further concerns about creeping attempts to Russify the country.

As part of the deal, Ukraine and Europe could get some US security guarantees against future Russian aggression, although no details were reported of what this could entail.

The US was a signatory of the 1994 Budapest memorandum on Ukraine’s security, which was later violated by Russia and it is not immediately clear how the new proposal would safeguard against a similar scenario in the future.

The plan appears to repeat Moscow’s maximalist demands and violate numerous Ukrainian red lines and would require a humiliating U-turn from President Zelenskyy, who has said giving up territory would be unacceptable.

It would also probably be deemed unacceptable by Ukraine’s European allies, who have long insisted that they should be given a role in the peace talks given the broader implications of the settlement for the continent’s security, particularly on Nato’s eastern flank.

The plan was reportedly drafted by Russian and US officials, including the influential head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, who has been involved in previous talks on Ukraine and is known to be in touch with the US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Below a post from the Axios journalist who broke the story, Witkoff sent what appeared to be meant as a private message saying: “He must have got this from K.” It was quickly deleted.

No US officials have formally confirmed the content of the plan, with the White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, telling reporters he had no news or announcements to make on the topic.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, issued a cryptic response to frenzied speculation overnight, saying only that “ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas”.

He said on X: “Achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”