The United States and Ukraine have significantly revised a controversial 28-point plan to end the war after intensive meetings in Geneva that brought the two sides closer to an agreement after the White House pressured Kiev to sign the plan by Thanksgiving, writes The Washington Post .

(In the video: Prof. Stanchev: If Europeans and Americans continue to show indecision, Putin will take advantage)

The changes, which two officials described as much more tolerable for Ukraine, are likely to be less acceptable to Russia — a paradox that has long led to a stalemate over ending the war.

The original draft, presented to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev last week, made concessions to Moscow that crossed “red lines” for Ukraine, sparking outrage in Kiev and among its allies, including Republicans in Congress. Zelensky and top officials have spent the past few days diplomatically trying to reach a better deal.

A US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a Ukrainian team led by the head of the presidential administration Andriy Yermak held talks in Geneva over the weekend to introduce changes to the proposal.

“The meetings were tense and difficult, but productive,” said Oleskander Bevs, an adviser to Ermak who participated in the negotiations. He noted that Thursday’s deadline now looks more flexible. “It’s not a code red. It’s more important to finalize the text.”

“Many of the controversial provisions were either softened or reworked to bring them closer to the Ukrainian position or to reduce the demands on Ukraine,” he said. By Monday, while not all of the draft language was fully “acceptable” to Kiev, the text had been revised to the point that it could at least “be considered,” whereas before it had been an ultimatum.

The US has threatened to stop all support if the agreement is not adopted by Thanksgiving, according to previous reports.

Both sides agreed to remove clauses related to US-Russian interactions that do not include Ukraine, to prevent Zelensky from signing a document with provisions unrelated to his country. Kiev also insisted that issues related to Europe be resolved separately and that Ukraine's bid for NATO membership be decided according to the alliance's rules, which require consensus, which essentially removed the veto power from the original draft.

Other issues, however, were more difficult to resolve.

Zelensky has not authorized anyone but himself to discuss territorial issues, meaning little progress has been made on the initial proposal, which included recognizing Russia's control over parts of Ukraine and withdrawing Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk region.

However, the Ukrainian side made it clear to American officials that it was ready to start discussions from its current military position and did not want to engage in proposals for a territorial exchange. The Americans understood that territorial issues could provoke social unrest or military protests in Ukraine.

Zelensky and President Donald Trump are expected to address some of these issues in a meeting or phone call that has not yet been scheduled. Meanwhile, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said there have been signals from the United States about organizing a formal meeting to discuss the proposals.

As of Monday, the document had been reduced from 28 to 19 points, according to an official source familiar with the discussions, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of diplomatic information.

The final number has not yet been finalized, but the basis remains the American proposal — and not a separate European draft of the same document, which was also circulating over the weekend.

The European proposals were “useful,” but the Americans focused on the original document. A European official familiar with the negotiations said that the provisions on European security appeared to have been removed from the latest draft, which focuses mainly on Ukraine. The original terms surprised European officials when they leaked last week, prompting frustration that they had not been consulted.

“This is not their issue,” the official source said, referring to the United States and Russia.

In Geneva, Rubio assured the Europeans that the terms directly affecting Europe and NATO would be “part of a separate process, as they require their participation.” He also noted that the initial plan had received “input from both sides” and was changing “daily.”

European officials — Zelensky’s main backers who fear they could be excluded from talks that affect the continent — have drafted their own amendments to the original 28-point U.S. plan. They oppose conditions that limit Ukraine’s military and demand territorial concessions.

Rubio said he was unaware of the"counter-plan" when asked about the European version.

One European diplomat noted a sense of “mystery surrounding the current phase of negotiations ” between the United States and Ukraine. “We are not fully engaged. We are trying to engage, but for the moment we are meeting with some rejection from the Americans.”

European officials wanted “a structured approach with diplomats sitting together, discussing and creating something that sounds like diplomacy, not something written in ChatGPT or the Russian version of the document,” the diplomat said.

On Monday, European Council President Antonio Costa said that the meetings in Geneva, attended by senior European officials, had led to progress."There are still issues to be resolved, but the direction is positive," he said.

He added that the 27 countries of the European Union will continue to"support this process" and conditions "that directly affect it", such as sanctions against Moscow, frozen Russian assets in Europe or Ukraine's efforts to join the EU,"require the full participation and decision of the bloc".

The Europeans opposed some conditions included in the American proposal, including giving a portion of the profits from investments in Ukraine with frozen Russian assets to the United States.

A modified European version of the plan states that frozen Russian assets, mainly in Europe, would be used to rebuild Ukraine and “will remain frozen until Russia compensates the country for the damage.” It also raised the maximum size of the Ukrainian army from 600,000 to 800,000 “in peacetime” and included a U.S. guarantee of Ukraine’s security, similar to NATO’s Article 5—the clause that says an attack on one is an attack on all.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday after the progress reports: “Is it really possible to make a lot of progress in the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine???”

“Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good may be happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had not officially received anything about the “updated and refined framework for peace” drawn up at the Geneva meeting involving US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll.

Peskov said Russia remained open to negotiations after President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the earlier 28-point peace plan could"serve as the basis for a final peace agreement."

In comparison, Russian presidential aide Ushakov described the so-called"European plan" reported in the media on Monday as "unconstructive."