Ukraine will not accept any plan that crosses its “red lines”, one of Kyiv’s chief negotiators declared on Friday after the release of a US plan that includes major concessions to Russia.
“There can be no decisions outside the framework of our sovereignty, the security of our people, or our red lines,” Rustem Umerov, Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, declared on Facebook.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a call with his main allies to discuss the US plan to end the war with Russia, senior government officials in Kyiv and London confirmed to the AFP news agency.
French President Emmanuel Macron and the German and British prime ministers, Friedrich Merz and Keir Starmer, joined the call with Zelensky on Friday. At the end of the call, they called for “protecting vital Ukrainian and European interests.”
Zelensky then confirmed that he is working on a peace proposal drafted by the United States, and insisted that it must guarantee a dignified peace for Ukraine, as the document meets many of Moscow's demands.
“We are working on the document prepared by the US side. It must be a plan that guarantees a real and dignified peace,” Zelensky commented on social media after a phone conversation with his European allies.
Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that European Union (EU) leaders will address the US-designed peace plan for Ukraine on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders' Summit in South Africa, although she reiterated that any initiative must include the participation of the Ukrainians.
“A 28-point plan has been made public. We will discuss the situation with both European leaders and the leaders present here, on the sidelines of the G20,” Von der Leyen said at a press conference alongside European Council President António Costa on the eve of the G20 summit taking place this weekend in Johannesburg.
“I will also contact President (Volodymyr) Zelensky to discuss this issue. The important thing is a key principle that we have always defended: nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” he emphasized.
However, Costa stressed that the EU has not received “any official communication” regarding the plan the United States has drawn up. Even so, he affirmed that the bloc remains “fully committed” to supporting Ukraine “on the basis of the principles of the UN Charter.”
The peace plan designed by the US proposes that Kyiv limit its army to a maximum of 600,000 troops after the war, rule out joining NATO, and withdraw from the territory it still controls in the east of the country, in the eastern region of Donbas, which would become a demilitarized zone after the conflict and be recognized de facto as Russian.
Putin's threat
For its part, the Kremlin warned Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky today that he must begin negotiations “now” or he will lose more territory, after the United States sent kyiv a peace proposal that includes many of Moscow’s demands.
“The effectiveness of the Russian armed forces should convince Zelensky: it is better to negotiate now than later,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared.
“Its room for maneuver is shrinking as it loses territory during Russian military offensives,” he added, while stating that Moscow had not officially received the US plan.
