Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he is ready to pull troops back from areas of the eastern Donetsk region still under Kyiv’s control and establish a demilitarised zone as part of a possible peace deal with Moscow.
The offer was the closest Mr Zelenskiy has come to addressing the thorny territorial disputes in Donetsk that have repeatedly derailed peace talks, signalling his willingness to compromise after weeks of US-mediated negotiations.
But the proposal also hinted at the significant gaps that remain between Ukraine and Russia. Mr Zelenskiy’s offer of a demilitarised zone came with a condition: Russia would have to pull its forces from an equivalent stretch of land in Donetsk. So far, the Kremlin has given no indication it is willing to accept anything less than full control over the region.
The proposal forms part of a revised 20-point peace plan that was drawn up by Ukraine and the United States in the past few weeks and that Mr Zelenskiy presented to reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday.
The blueprint covers a broad range of issues, from potential territorial arrangements to the security guarantees Ukraine wants to prevent future Russian aggression, as well as plans to rebuild the war-ravaged nation.
Mr Zelenskiy portrayed the plan as Ukraine’s best effort to end the war and said it was now up to Russia to decide how to respond. He said the new draft was being presented to Russia by the United States, and that Ukraine expected a reply by Wednesday evening.
The Ukrainian leader said the various points in the plan “largely reflect the joint Ukrainian American position”. But Ukraine and Washington did not reach an agreement on two sticking points: the fate of Ukrainian-held territory in Donetsk and control of a major nuclear plant currently occupied by Russia. On the second point, Ukraine offered to manage the plant jointly with the United States as a form of compromise.
It remained unclear how the proposed Ukrainian concessions not yet accepted by the United States would be communicated by US officials to Moscow.
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Ukraine’s proposed concessions are likely to be rejected by Moscow, however, even if accepted in full by the US. The Kremlin has insisted its primary goal is a full military takeover of Donetsk – whether achieved on the battlefield or at the negotiating table – and has dismissed any notion of returning the nuclear plant to Ukrainian control.
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had been briefed about the latest negotiations. “We aim to formulate our future stance and resume our contacts shortly,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.
Mr Zelenskiy voiced cautious optimism that Moscow would not openly rebuff the new proposal for fear of angering President Donald Trump. If it did, he added, the Kremlin should face serious consequences.
“They cannot tell President Trump: ‘Look, we are against a peaceful settlement,” he told reporters. “That is, if they try to obstruct everything, then President Trump would have to arm us heavily, while imposing all possible sanctions against them.”
“We have come significantly closer to finalising the documents,” he said about a possible peace deal.
As he spoke on Tuesday, the Ukrainian leader was reading from a stack of documents outlining the proposal, along with separate addendums on security guarantees and Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction. Several sentences in the proposal were highlighted in red, marking what Mr Zelenskiy said were the most debated points.
The main point of contention – control over the Donetsk region – has been subject to multiple proposals in recent months. Russia first offered to swap territories it captured elsewhere in Ukraine in exchange for the part of Donetsk it has yet to capture. Ukraine rejected the offer, arguing that it could not cede any land that was not occupied.
A peace proposal drafted by Russia and the United States last month then called for Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the areas of Donetsk they currently hold and turn them into a neutral demilitarised zone.
The new draft peace plan Mr Zelenskiy unveiled says Ukraine is ready to build on the idea of a demilitarised zone by expanding it to include not only areas vacated by Ukrainian forces but also Russian-controlled areas from which Moscow would pull its troops.
Mr Zelenskiy described the potential demilitarised areas as a “free economic zone”. Although the potential economic opportunities of the war-ravaged territory remain unclear, the phrasing may be intended to appeal to Trump’s business-oriented mindset and to American businesses drawn by Ukraine’s mineral riches in areas close to the front. – This article originally appeared in the New York Times