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US and Ukraine signal peace plan progress after Geneva talks

US and Ukrainian negotiators have drawn up an “updated and refined peace framework”, and plan to continue “intensive” work on a peace plan over the coming days, the countries announced on Sunday.

A joint statement said talks on a US-backed plan in Geneva had been “highly productive”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there had been a “tremendous amount of progress” on honing a plan which has been cautiously welcomed by Russia, but not by leaders in Kyiv and Europe, who see it as too favourable to the Kremlin.

Rubio said there was “still some work to be done”, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were “signals that President [Donald] Trump’s team is hearing us”.

Speaking to reporters late on Sunday, Rubio said the negotiating teams in Geneva had had a “very good day”.

He said the main goal had been to try to narrow “open items” from the 28-point US plan, and that the parties involved had achieved that in a “substantial way”.

However, America’s top diplomat said any final agreement would have to be agreed by the Ukrainian and US presidents before it could be put to Russia, and that there were still some issues being negotiated.

Positive accounts of the meeting came hours after Trump accused Ukraine’s leaders of showing “zero gratitude” for US efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

The US president also pointed out that Europe – where Kyiv has some of its most loyal allies – was continuing to buy oil from Russia. Moscow relies heavily on its oil and gas exports to continue financing its war in Ukraine.

Several media outlets reported they had seen an alternative plan to end the war drafted by Kyiv’s European allies, led by the UK, France and Germany. The BBC has not seen the document and Rubio denied any knowledge of its existence.

While the draft of the US-backed plan has not been published in full, major details have leaked in recent days.

Controversial provisions include Ukraine agreeing to withdraw troops from parts of the eastern Donetsk region that they currently control, and international recognition of de facto Russian control of Donetsk, the neighbouring Luhansk region and the southern Crimea peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

The plan also includes freezing the borders of Ukraine’s southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions along the current battle lines, and would see Ukraine agreeing to limit the size of its military to 600,000 personnel, down from about 880,000 now.

The draft crucially includes a pledge for Ukraine not to seek membership of Nato. Instead, Kyiv would receive “reliable security guarantees”, about which no details have been given.

The document says “it is expected” that Russia will not invade its neighbours and that Nato will not expand further.

The draft also suggests Russia will be “reintegrated into the global economy”, through the lifting of sanctions and by inviting Russia to rejoin the G7 group of the world’s most powerful countries – making it the G8 again.

Trump previously gave Ukraine until this coming Thursday to agree to the proposals, though later said the draft did not amount to a “final offer” after Ukraine’s allies voiced their concerns.

And Rubio told reporters on Sunday he was “very optimistic that we’re going to get there in a very reasonable period of time very soon”, whether it was Thursday, other days, or Monday the following week.

Before the talks began in Geneva, Rubio and the State Department insisted the widely-leaked plan had been authored by the US.

That came after a bipartisan group of US senators claimed the secretary of state had told them the draft was a Russian proposal and did not represent the Trump administration’s position.

Rubio rebutted that account and said it had been authored by the US with “input” from Moscow and Kyiv, while a State Department spokesperson described the senators’ account of their conversation with Rubio as “blatantly false”.

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