A US-brokered 28-point Russia-Ukraine peace plan has emerged after a Ukrainian official leaked the draft to international media, putting a contentious US-backed framework at the center of negotiations.
The plan largely echoed Russian demands like ceding Crimea/Donbas and NATO neutrality, sparking European counter-proposals and Ukrainian resistance, while Putin signaled openness but insisted on maximalist terms.
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were key figures in shaping the proposal before presenting it to Donald Trump for approval, while Trump has described the plan as a flexible “map” rather than a final settlement.
What were in the plan?
Early versions of the plan reportedly called for Ukraine to cede Donbas to Russia, reduce its armed forces to 600,000 and pledge never to join NATO. It also included a broad non-aggression pact, prisoner exchanges, amnesty for combatants, security guarantees for Kyiv and a path to EU membership.
The draft further suggested recognizing Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk as de facto Russian, including by the United States, while also allowing Russian and Ukrainian access to grain shipments on the Dnipro River and Black Sea. Another proposal would split electricity from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant between both sides.
Reactions from Kyiv and Moscow
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that allowing Russia to keep territory seized by force would set a dangerous precedent and undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty. He said Ukrainians now face a stark choice between dignity and losing a major partner, adding that he would fight to ensure their freedom is not compromised.
Now, Ukraine can face a very difficult choice — either losing dignity or risk losing a major partner. I will fight 24/7 to ensure that at least two points in the plan are not overlooked – the dignity and freedom of Ukrainians.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
Vladimir Putin has said the US proposal could serve as a basis for future talks, but he has also repeated threats to seize more territory unless Ukrainian troops withdraw. Moscow continues to insist that any deal must address what it calls the “root causes” of the war, including NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe.
Europe’s counterproposal
European leaders have pushed back with their own version, raising Ukraine’s troop cap to 800,000 and rejecting any forced territorial concessions. Their draft would begin territorial-swap talks from the current line of contact, give more victim-focused justice rather than blanket amnesty, and align Ukraine with EU standards on religious freedom and minority language rights.
The EU proposal also redirects frozen Russian assets primarily toward rebuilding Ukraine. By contrast, the original draft envisioned about $100 billion in frozen Russian funds going into US-led reconstruction and investment projects, with Washington taking half the profits and Europe contributing another $100 billion.
Security and political stakes
One of the sharper criticisms of the US draft is that it does not impose explicit limits on Ukraine’s defense industry or armed forces, even though it says a Ukrainian missile strike on Moscow or St. Petersburg would void the U.S. security guarantee. European officials have called that imbalance unacceptable and have pressed for stronger, NATO-style guarantees for Kyiv without additional territorial losses.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the outcome matters far beyond Ukraine, warning that a collapse there would reverberate across Europe. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, however, dismissed the European counterproposal as “completely unconstructive and does not work for us.”
If Ukraine loses this war and possibly collapses, it will have an impact on European politics as a whole, on the entire European continent. And that is why we are so committed to this issue. There is currently an opportunity to end this war, but we are still quite a long way from a good outcome for everyone.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
Read more:
India-Russia Annual Summit 2025
Ukraine’s $100M Corruption Scandal
Trump brokers multi-phase Gaza Ceasefire
