Ukraine and the United States appear to be edging closer to a peace deal over the war with Russia, in a potentially significant diplomatic shift following crunch talks in Switzerland.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that Kyiv was ready to move forward with a framework to end the war with Russia.
In a day of fast-moving developments, Kyiv said it supported the “essence” of the Geneva plan while stressing there were still some sensitive issues that needed to be fixed.
US president Donald Trump, who last week imposed a deadline of this Thursday for Ukraine to accept, said he thought a deal was now “very close”.
“We’re going to get there,” he told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “I think we’re getting very close to a deal – we’ll find out … I think we’re making progress.”
On Tuesday night Mr Trump said his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “fine-tuned” and that he is sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin and army secretary Dan Driscoll to meet Ukrainian officials.
But Mr Trump also said he will only meet with Putin and Mr Zelensky in the “final stages” of the peace deal. In a post on Truth Social he said he had sent envoys to Moscow and Kyiv in a bid to iron out a “few remaining points of disagreement” between the warring countries.
Mr Zelensky said: “We worked with the Ukrainian negotiating team today [Tuesday] on the text of the document prepared with the United States in Geneva. The principles in this document can be developed into deeper agreements. It is in our shared interest that security is real.
“I count on continued active cooperation with the American side and President Trump. Much depends on the United States because it’s America’s strength that Russia takes most seriously. I thank everyone who stands with Ukraine.”
A Ukrainian official familiar with the ongoing negotiations said that the US appears to have agreed to a document set out by Europe’s allies in Geneva – but not the previously presented US plan.
The Swiss summit over the weekend gave Europe a brief window to present its own peace proposal, a revision of an earlier American draft seen to favour Russia without offering Ukraine any tangible security guarantees.
Ukraine’s security chief Rustem Umerov said that the delegations had now reached a common understanding on what he called the “core terms” of the Geneva agreement.
Sir Keir Starmer said changes proposed to the draft peace plan are “constructive” and “could be accepted”.
Speaking at the start of a meeting of Coalition of the Willing allies, the prime minister said: “I welcome some of the developments that have now come forward.
