The United States (U.S.) has presented proposals to its allies for enabling a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, including a draft of conditions for ending the fighting and easing sanctions on Moscow in the event of a lasting ceasefire.
The U.S. wants to secure a complete ceasefire within a few weeks, and the allies will reconvene in London next week. This pressure comes even after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday suggested that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is prepared to abandon its peace efforts if progress is not achieved quickly.
U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said yesterday in Rome that he is “optimistic” regarding the prospects of bringing the war to an end.
The outlines of the U.S. plan were shared at meetings with Ukrainian representatives in Paris on Thursday, according to European officials familiar with the matter.
That proposal would effectively freeze the war, and the Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Russia would remain under Moscow’s control, sources claim.
Kyiv’s aspirations to join NATO would also be excluded, the sources note.
They declined to provide further details, citing the confidential nature of the talks.
The negotiations in Paris included a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as talks between Rubio and national security advisors and negotiators from France, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK), and Ukraine.
U.S. officials have indicated they want to secure a complete ceasefire within a few weeks.
Allies will reconvene in London next week. One of the officials said that the plans, which need to be further discussed with Kyiv, will not represent a definitive solution and that European allies will not recognize the occupied territories as Russian.
Officials emphasized that the talks would be pointless if the Kremlin does not agree to halt the fighting and that it is of essential importance to provide Ukraine with security guarantees in order to ensure the sustainability of any agreement.
Rubio emphasized yesterday that security guarantees are not “an illegitimate demand” from Ukraine, but that negotiators have not yet reached that level of specificity.
In Paris, the task of the Ukrainian delegation was to discuss how any ceasefire would be monitored, as well as the peacekeeping contingent, according to a well-informed source.
European officials described the meetings in Paris as “constructive and positive.”
The discussions marked the latest attempt by Europe to influence the outcome by showing that, together with Kyiv, they fully support U.S. efforts to end the war and that it is up to Russia to prove it is serious about negotiations on a ceasefire.
Departing from Paris, Rubio told reporters he hopes that the UK, France, and Germany could help push toward a decision – but he also suggested that U.S. patience with mediation efforts is running out.
“We are not going to continue this endeavor for weeks and months. We now have to determine very quickly – and I’m talking about a matter of days – whether this is feasible in the next few weeks. If it is, we’re in. If not, then we have other priorities,” said Rubio.
The negotiations in Paris also built on efforts by France and the UK to ensure that Kyiv has an army with appropriate resources as part of the security guarantees package. Officials in Paris and London hope that the proposal will show that Europe is serious about committing its own resources to Ukraine’s post-war future, and convince Trump to support those guarantees.
Lifting sanctions while Russia continues to occupy large areas of Ukraine could prove problematic for several of Kyiv’s allies.
Removing European Union (EU) restrictions, including the unfreezing of real estate assets, requires the support of all member states.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized Witkoff for “adopting the Russian strategy” and said that Trump’s envoy does not have “a mandate to discuss Ukrainian territories, because those territories belong to our people.”
