Ukrainian and US officials will meet in Switzerland on Sunday to discuss Washington’s proposed 28-point plan for ending the war with Russia, as Ukraine’s allies said the proposal needs more work.

“In the coming days, consultations will take place with partners regarding the steps needed to end the war,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday on X, after he issued a decree stating Ukraine’s team for the talks, which will be led by his top aide, Andriy Yermak.

“Our representatives know how to defend Ukraine’s national interests and what is necessary to prevent Russia from launching a third invasion,” Zelenskyy added.

US President Donald Trump gave Ukraine until Thursday to approve the 28-point plan to end the nearly four-year war, which would see the invaded country cede territory, cut its army, and pledge to never join NATO.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Saturday told reporters at the G20 summit that envoys from Germany, France, the UK and the EU will join Ukrainian negotiators in Geneva.

Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s security council secretary, who’s also on board for the talks, earlier also indicated Switzerland as a location for the deliberations.

“This is another stage of the dialogue that has been ongoing in recent days and is primarily aimed at aligning our vision for the next steps,” added Umerov, formerly a defence minister. He previously led a few rounds of negotiations with Russia in Turkiye, which only yielded prisoner exchanges and the repatriations of bodies.

Zelenskyy’s decree also said the negotiations will include “representatives of the Russian Federation”. There was no immediate confirmation from Russia whether it would join the talks.

EU pushes back against US plan

European and other Western leaders said they believe the plan was a basis for talks to end Russia’s war but required “additional work”.

“We are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force,” said the leaders of key European countries, as well as Canada and Japan, in a joint statement.

“We are also concerned by the proposed limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces, which would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attack,” they said, adding that any implementing elements of the plan linked with the 27-member bloc and NATO would have to be undertaken with the consent of member states.

German Chancellor Merz said Russia’s war could only be ended with Ukraine’s “unconditional consent”.

“Wars cannot be ended by major powers over the heads of the countries affected,” he said on the sidelines of the summit.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with the state-owned International Affairs magazine, published on Saturday, that he would not rule out the possibility of another meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has backed the US proposal.

“The search for a way forward continues,” he said, adding that Moscow and Washington continue to keep channels for dialogue open despite the lack of an agreement during a Trump-Putin meeting in August, and the indefinite suspension of another planned round in Budapest.

Putin has refused to engage in a summit that includes Zelenskyy and will be even less likely to now, given he believes Russia has the upper hand on the battlefield and the ear of the US on the diplomatic front.

Russian attacks ongoing

Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to report advances in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Defence announced on Saturday that its soldiers “liberated” the settlement of Zvanivka in the Donetsk region’s Bakhmut, allegedly inflicting “significant losses” on Ukrainian forces.

It also released footage of air attacks and FPV drone attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Zaporizhia region, where Russian forces have been getting closer to the strategic town of Huliaipole using glide bombs and tactical ground incursions.

The Defence Ministry claimed that the Novoe Zaporozhye area was taken under Russian control, including a “major enemy defence node” covering an area of more than 14sq km (five square miles).

This would add to a growing number of villages in the southeastern Ukrainian region that have been captured by Russian troops since September as they try to push back the Ukrainian military and strike energy infrastructure with another punishing winter of war approaching.

Ukrainian soldiers are also under intense attacks in the Pokrovsk area, where the fighting is believed to be fierce as the Russian military command redeploys forces to strengthen its offensive.

Regional Ukrainian authorities have reported at least one civilian death and 13 injuries over the past day as a result of Russian air attacks. The fatal strike took place in Donetsk, Governor Vadym Filashkin said.

Ukraine’s air force said Russian troops launched one Iskander-M ballistic missile from annexed Crimea and 104 drones from several areas towards multiple Ukrainian regions overnight into Saturday, of which 89 drones were downed. Most of the drones were of Iranian design, it added.

Ukrainian media said the Yany Kapu electric substation in northern Crimea was targeted by drones overnight, with footage circulating on social media showing explosions and strikes.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its air force shot down six fixed-wing Ukrainian drones over Crimea early on Saturday, without confirming any hits on the ground.