KYIV — After a week of pressure on Ukraine to agree to the U.S.’s contentious proposal to end Russia’s war on the country, Washington and Kyiv said talks in Geneva generated an “updated and refined peace framework” for additional negotiations.
The original 28-point plan from the Trump administration alarmed Ukraine and its European allies, as did the aggressive deadline set by the White House. Sunday’s discussions in Switzerland eased some of those concerns, but more work is needed, both sides said.
“Much is changing,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement late Sunday. “It is important that we have dialogue with American representatives, and there are signals that President Trump’s team is hearing us,” he added.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also optimistic about the Geneva discussions and the prospects going forward.
“I don’t want to declare victory or finality here. There’s still some work to be done,” Rubio told reporters after Sunday’s meeting. “But we are much further ahead today than we were when we began this morning and where we were a week ago for certain.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, who once again Sunday decried what he called “zero gratitude” from Ukraine, was pleased with the progress made in Geneva, Rubio said.
“The discussions showed meaningful progress toward aligning positions and identifying clear next steps,” Washington and Kyiv said in a joint statement, which noted that Ukraine “reaffirmed its gratitude” to the U.S. and Trump personally. “They reaffirmed that any future agreement must fully uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty and deliver a sustainable and just peace.”
Despite the public show of optimism, “the negotiations were tense,” said a person familiar with Sunday’s talks granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations. “The American side did not want to deviate from the text of the plan approved by the Russians,” this person said. “However, Ukrainians kept pointing out unacceptable parts of the plan, and in the end, there were some changes.”
Even though Trump’s team said the original set of proposals was developed with input from both Ukraine and Russia, Kyiv was shown the plan only once its initial framework was set. Trump also set a deadline of this Thursday for Ukraine to agree, threatening to cut off aid and intelligence to Kyiv.
The EU also was sidelined from the initial development of the peace plan, which featured Europe giving $100 billion of Russia’s frozen assets toward Ukraine’s restoration, with the territories most in need of restoration remaining under Russia’s de facto rule. The plan also foresees the U.S. getting 50 percent of profits from the reconstruction efforts.
EU talks Monday
European Council President António Costa on Sunday called a special meeting of EU leaders about Ukraine on the sidelines of an EU-Africa Summit that starts Monday in Angola. “We will continue to coordinate closely with Ukraine and the U.S. over the coming days,” Costa said.
Neither side gave details of how the framework changed as a result of Sunday’s talks. “There were items that we were discussing as part of the original 28, or it evolved,” Rubio said, calling the plan “a living, breathing document.”
“Every day with input it changes,” Rubio said. “You get a pretty good sense of what the priorities and the red lines and the important issues are for both sides.”
It was unclear on Monday which version of the plan was circulating among the delegations in Geneva. In a version published by Reuters on Sunday, an earlier rejection of Ukraine joining NATO was toned down to state “Ukraine joining NATO depends on consensus of NATO members, which does not exist.”
In addition, a proposal to use frozen Russian funds, including those in Europe, for Washington-led reconstruction efforts and for the U.S. to retain “50 percent” of the profits — a point that Europeans had been fuming about — was essentially scrapped.
“All issues concerning Europe and also those concerning NATO have been removed from this plan,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk on Monday. He called Sunday’s talks a “big success” for the Europeans.
“It’s not just about getting a ceasefire quickly,” Wadephul said. “But the agreement must be one that both sides can ultimately support.”
It remains a big question whether the Kremlin would agree to wording that theoretically leaves the door open for Ukraine to join NATO. One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ostensible justifications for what he dubs Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine is the prospect of NATO expansion — and the Kremlin is likely to insist that NATO membership for Ukraine must be ruled out in any peace deal.
Ukraine and the U.S. agreed to continue intensive work on the framework in the coming days, in close contact with their European partners as the process advances.
“It is crucial that every joint action with our partners is throughly thought out,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X. “We are coordinating very well and I appreciate the advice and perspectives we are sharing,” he said.
‘We want it to be soon’
“The negotiations were a step forward, but there are still major issues which remain to be resolved,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in a post on X on Monday, after talking with Zelenskyy. “Any decision falling in the remit of the EU or NATO will be discussed and decided by the EU and NATO members in a separate track,” Stubb added.
Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, meanwhile, warned that a “rotten compromise” to bring peace to Ukraine would only trigger a new phase of conflict in Europe. “If anyone believes that a lasting peace in Europe will be built on a rotten compromise, that won’t be the case. Because Russia, encouraged by its territorial gains, encouraged by its victory in this conflict, will only be eager to go further,” he said.
Washington still wants to get the peace plan finalized as soon as possible, but is less firm about a Thanksgiving deadline. “Obviously, we’d love it to be Thursday,” Rubio said, adding: “Whether it’s Thursday, whether it’s Friday, whether it’s Wednesday, whether it’s Monday of the following week, we want it to be soon.”
“Our goal is to end this war as soon as possible, but we need a little more time,” Rubio said.
Work continues on technical levels, with the U.S. expecting a handful of answers and suggestions from Kyiv in the next 24 hours.
“Diplomacy has been activated, and that’s good,” Zelenskyy said. “First priority is a lasting peace, guaranteed security, respect for all who gave up their lives to protect Ukraine from Russia,” he said, adding that Monday will be an active day for negotiators.
“We are protecting Ukraine’s interests,” Zelenskyy said.
Nette Nöstlinger contributed reporting.
