Ukraine proposes fresh amendments to Trump peace plan as pressure from Washington grows

Ukraine responded “point-by-point” to the latest iteration of the Trump administration’s peace plan on Wednesday, US news outlet Axios reported citing US and Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov has sent the official Ukrainian response to US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner after several days of consultations between Kyiv and its European allies — mainly France, Germany and the UK, Axios reported.

A Ukrainian official told Axios that the response included amendments “to make the whole thing doable”, with new proposals on how to resolve “sticking points” such as territorial issues and control over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine, which is currently occupied by Russian forces.

A Ukrainian source also told the outlet that senior military officials from the US and Ukraine were expected to hold an online meeting on Thursday to continue discussing “specific parts” of the US peace plan.

Though the contents of the US peace plan, which has been revised multiple times since its original 28-point draft leaked in November, have not been formally disclosed, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the negotiating package currently involves three documents — the peace plan itself, security guarantees for Kyiv, and an economic recovery plan.

Some of the points include Ukraine joining the EU as early as 2027, Washington providing “Article 5-like” security guarantees for Ukraine if Russia violates the peace deal, using $100 billion of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s post-war recovery, and establishing a “demilitarised zone” along the entire line of contact, which would run all the way from the Donetsk region in Ukraine’s northeast to the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the country’s south.

One major point of contention is the deal’s requirement for Ukraine to cede the 25% of its Donetsk region that remains under Kyiv’s control to Russia, which continues its slow advance in Donbas. While Trump’s team believes that Ukraine is likely “to lose much” of the remaining territories in battle over the next six months, Zelensky insisted earlier this week that he had no legal or moral right to cede territory to Russia.

In a highly unusual move, the latest plan places control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in US hands, according to The Washington Post. “Strange as it may sound, that appeals to some Ukrainian officials because it would provide an American tripwire against Russian aggression,” the newspaper wrote.

Meanwhile, in a phone call held with Trump on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer proposed that the US president meet with Zelensky in Europe over the weekend. “We will see,” Trump said during a roundtable at the White House. “We don’t want to waste our time.”

Citing officials briefed on the ongoing negotiations, the Financial Times (FT) said on Tuesday that Zelensky had been given until 25 December to accept the proposed peace deal, as Trump continued to exert pressure on the Ukrainian leader, with one Western official telling the FT that Kyiv was “stuck between demands on territory they can’t accept and a US side they can’t reject”.