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Ukraine is ready to withdraw “heavy forces” from the parts of the Donbas region it still controls if Russia mirrors the pullback as part of a peace deal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in comments released on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy outlined details of potential demilitarised or free economic zones in comments on a draft 20-point peace plan further developed with the US in Florida last week.
He emphasised that any troop pullback would require direct talks with US President Donald Trump, and any final agreement would be put to a nationwide referendum in Ukraine.
“I explained to [the American side]: if you want a referendum — and they do, by the way — then the entire document would have to be put to a referendum, not just some individual free economic zones,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian president said he was now waiting for Moscow’s answer to the proposal. Both sides remain deeply at odds over provisions to end the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a press conference on Friday that Moscow wanted its most hardline demands to form the basis for any peace talks with Ukraine, adding that he expected his forces to keep advancing on the battlefield nearly four years into the invasion.
Zelenskyy had confirmed earlier this month that discussions were ongoing over a possible demilitarised area in eastern Ukraine, but had added it was “not a given” that Ukraine would accept.
The plan calls on Ukraine to hold elections “as soon as possible” if an agreement is signed, Zelenskyy said. Moscow has repeatedly called Zelenskyy an illegitimate leader and demanded his removal.
A house burns near ruined buildings in the town of Kostyantynivka, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine © Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade/AP
The 20-point draft plan was developed by Ukraine and the US in response to an earlier 28-point plan that offered significant concessions to Russia and sparked deep alarm among officials in Europe and Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly signalled it would not accept amendments to that plan.
In the current version of the document, Zelenskyy said, Ukraine would receive security guarantees “mirroring” Nato’s Article 5 guarantees of mutual protection for any member under attack.
It would also join the EU at an unspecified date and receive funds for reconstruction and have a free trade agreement with the US.
The draft also involves the creation of a working group to discuss the “redeployment of forces” as well as the creation of “potential future special economic zones”, he said.
Zelenskyy stressed that any demilitarised zones would involve both sides withdrawing military forces.
“The areas from which our troops have withdrawn would be under our administration and police because it is a free economic zone, and there must be someone responsible for law and order, for example,” he said.
He admitted the free economic zone format was meant as a compromise between Moscow’s demand that Kyiv cede the entire Donbas region and Ukraine’s refusal to give up territory.
American negotiators “are looking for a demilitarised zone or a free economic zone, meaning a format that could satisfy both sides”, Zelenskyy said.
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Another point of contention has been the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which is in territory under Russian control at present.
Zelenskyy rejected the idea that the plant be operated jointly by the US, Ukraine and Russia, as laid out in the 20-point plan. He said Ukraine suggested a “compromise” in which it would be operated by a company jointly owned by Ukraine and the US without Russian involvement — a proposal likely to be a non-starter for Moscow.
He also called for the city of Enerhodar, built by the Soviet Union to house workers from the nuclear power plant and their families, to become a demilitarised, “free economic zone”.
The Kremlin said Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy for economic co-operation, had briefed the Russian president after meeting US negotiators in Miami last weekend to discuss Trump’s plan.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, told reporters that Russia would “continue contacts through existing channels in the immediate future”, according to state newswire Ria Novosti.
Additional reporting by Max Seddon