Go on a combat mission: how Ukraine and the EU are trying to thwart Trump's plan
The United States and Ukraine have agreed on an updated version of the peace document, the number of its paragraphs has been reduced from 28 to 19. As early as November 25, this text was discussed at the talks between the Russian and US delegations in Abu Dhabi, the media reported, citing sources. But there have been no official statements from the Russian Federation on this matter. Against the background of the efforts of diplomats, Ukraine is intensifying attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation — on the night of November 25, the Rostov Region and Krasnodar Territory were attacked. Kiev is thus demonstrating its unwillingness to resolve the conflict peacefully, Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador to the crimes of the Kiev regime, told Izvestia. Meanwhile, Washington is increasingly distancing itself from Brussels — European diplomats complain that they have actually been sidelined from the negotiation process.
Ukraine has returned to prohibited methods of war
The United States and Ukraine have agreed on an updated version of the peace agreement. According to media reports, the original American plan was reworked at the meetings in Geneva — instead of 28 points, only 19 remained in it, and as a result, Ukraine "essentially" supported it. A similar decision was made by the Europeans. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Kiev's European allies had decided not to work on an alternative document.
CBS News and the Financial Times, citing sources, report that issues related to European security and NATO were removed from the draft agreement, in particular, and the text itself became more focused on relations between Russia and Ukraine. Apparently, it was with this document that US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll went to Abu Dhabi. FT explains this visit by the need to "ensure contact" with Moscow after the Geneva round.
It was in Abu Dhabi that Driscoll allegedly held his first meeting with the Russian delegation on the evening of November 24, the day after the consultations in Geneva were completed. The next round of negotiations with the participation of the US Secretary of the Army was held on November 25. This fits into Washington's line: US President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that a deal on Ukraine must be concluded as soon as possible.
In addition, Driscoll may have a separate meeting in the UAE with Kirill Budanov, head of the State Development Committee (listed as a terrorist and extremist by Rosfinmonitoring).
Moscow has so far declined to comment in detail. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had nothing to say about reports of Driscoll's meeting with Russian officials.
"At some point, the time will probably come when our contacts with the Americans will be carried out, and we will officially receive some information," he said.
The Kremlin representative stressed that Moscow has not yet received an updated version of the plan and that the negotiation process is currently underway between Kiev and Washington.
Meanwhile, while Ukraine verbally demonstrates a desire to resolve the conflict, in reality everything is different. On the night of November 25, the Ukrainian army launched two massive strikes — on Taganrog in the Rostov region and on the Krasnodar Territory. As a result, there are dead and injured.
"Against the background of the ongoing rhetoric about the alleged desire for peace, this can only be regarded as an actual demonstration of the lack of desire to find a compromise and a peaceful settlement," Rodion Miroshnik, the Foreign Ministry's ambassador for crimes of the Kiev regime, told Izvestia.
According to him, Vladimir Zelensky's initial shock at Donald Trump's proposal has passed, and Kiev has "returned to its path of terrorist activity and the use of prohibited methods of war."
At the same time, Ukraine has not yet responded to Russia's proposal to create three working negotiating groups, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Moscow made such an offer during the negotiations in Istanbul. The Russian minister stressed that Moscow appreciates the mediation efforts not only of Turkey, but also of the United States, Hungary and Belarus.
How the US is trying to change the peace plan
At the moment, the main bargaining point is the content of the US peace plan. The initial 28-point document, according to the sources, "caught the Europeans by surprise" and caused irritation that Brussels was not consulted on its key provisions. Now, one of the European interlocutors told the press that elements related to European security had been removed from the new edition.
In the initial version, according to media leaks, it was proposed to de facto assign Crimea and a significant part of Donbass to Russia, freeze the front line as a new border, Ukraine should constitutionally refuse to join NATO and agree to a hard ceiling on the number of 600 thousand people. In addition, the document provided for the non-expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance and the use of part of Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine.
The new document, which was probably discussed at informal meetings in Abu Dhabi, no longer contains Moscow's main demands. Kiev, as reported by FT, agreed to limit the size of its army to only 800,000. During the revision of the document in Geneva, the most sensitive topics — territorial concessions, Ukraine's future status in NATO and its relations with the EU — were actually removed from the list of agreed points. They have been moved to the category of so-called controversial provisions, which are now drawn up in a separate list and are not considered an agreed text.
Demilitarization, that is, restrictions on the Armed Forces of Ukraine in terms of numbers and weapons, as well as denazification, the return of the powers of the UOC and the status of the Russian language as the state language, were important points for the Russian Federation in the original document, political scientist Evgeny Mikhailov noted in a conversation with Izvestia.
"Now, apparently, the restrictions of the Kiev regime's armed forces and, most importantly, the stop along the line of contact have been removed from it," the political scientist noted.
Mikhailov stressed that Ukraine's withdrawal from NATO and the issue of frozen Russian funds in Europe are also considered important for the Russian Federation. He recalled the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who admitted that a 28-point plan could form the basis of a peace agreement.
At the same time, Le Monde reports that in Geneva, the provisions on Russia's return to the G8 and on the use by the United States of frozen Russian assets in Europe under American control were also removed — the Europeans insisted that they would be the ones to manage them. The original document of the US administration proposed using part of the Russian frozen assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine, and the other part was to go to joint Russian-American projects. European officials promise to "continue pushing through" the reparation loan plan.
It is worth noting that there is no precise and unified information about what exactly was removed from the plan. At the same time, according to Western media, Russia allegedly called the updated 19-point peace plan "a failure" at the talks in Abu Dhabi. However, Axios news agency quoted Jeffrey Tolbert, a spokesman for the US Army, as saying that negotiations with the Russian delegation were going well and Washington remained optimistic.
And Trump published a post claiming that the original version of the 28-point US peace plan had been finalized taking into account the proposals of Moscow and Kiev. According to him, there are only a few points on which the parties disagree.
Vladimir Putin had previously said that Moscow was ready for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, but the tasks set could also be solved militarily.
Washington is moving away from Kiev and Brussels
Meanwhile, Brussels is not satisfied with the level of participation of EU and European officials in the negotiation process.
"We don't participate in them. We are trying to enter into negotiations, but at the moment the Americans are denying us this," said, for example, a source in The Washington Post.
Ukraine is seeking Europe's direct participation in the negotiations, as neither the UK nor the European Union currently have a voice, the media reported.
During the talks in Geneva, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not even meet with the head of the EU's foreign policy service, Kaya Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, media reported.
This may be due to the desire of the United States to demonstrate its attitude to the European version of the peace plan, says Dmitry Novikov, head of the HSE Laboratory of Political Geography and Modern Geopolitics.
"Such a move on Rubio's part may be caused by a desire to demonstrate to the Europeans that, if anything, the Americans may not discuss anything with them at all, but try to build a peace structure between Washington, Kiev and Moscow," the expert added.
Novikov stressed that such a development of events is undesirable for American diplomacy, but their goal in this case is to moderate the ardor of the Europeans.
— The Americans' calculation is that if a certain peace plan is adopted by the Ukrainian leadership, the Europeans will be forced to accept reality. Moreover, to some extent it will save their face," he said.
Meanwhile, after the talks in Geneva, the press reported about an imminent personal meeting between Trump and Zelensky. However, on the evening of November 24, the White House dispelled these expectations. They reported that "no meeting is currently scheduled."
Trump himself has stated that he is ready to meet with Putin and Zelensky after the deal to end the conflict is completed or is in the final stages.
— This is an element of psychological pressure on Ukrainians. In addition, this is a negotiating tactic, because both Ukrainians and Europeans are betting that they will meet directly with Trump and it will be more difficult for him to refuse them," Novikov added.
At the same time, the United States has a serious lever of pressure — they can cut back on intelligence assistance to Ukraine and sell fewer weapons to Europe, Mikhailov concluded.
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