Documents expose differences over U.S. peace drive for Ukraine

Ukrainian and European officials pushed back this week against some U.S. proposals on how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, making counterproposals on issues from territory to sanctions, according to the full texts of the proposals seen by Reuters.

The sets of proposals from talks between U.S., European and Ukrainian officials in Paris on April 17 and in London on April 23 laid bare the inner workings of the shuttle diplomacy under way as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks a quick end to the war.

 

The primary areas of difference in the two texts are over the sequencing for resolving questions over territory, the lifting of sanctions on Russia, security guarantees and the size of Ukraine’s military.

While some of the divergences have been highlighted by sources close to the talks, the documents seen by Reuters set out for the first time the differences in full and explicit detail.

The first text says its “terms represent the final offer from the United States to both sides”. It contains proposals set out by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff to European officials in Paris that were passed to the Ukrainians, according to sources close to the talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the proposals as a “broad framework, opens new tab” to identify differences between the sides, though U.S. Vice President JD Vance later said the United States had issued a very explicit proposal to both sides and it was time to agree or see Washington quit its peace efforts.

The second text emerged this week from talks between Ukrainian and European officials in London and has been given to the American side, the sources said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that he thought a document with proposals that emerged from Wednesday’s talks in London was now on Trump’s desk.
On Friday, Witkoff arrived in Moscow for talks and met Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The diplomacy is the most concerted effort to stop the fighting since the first months of Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Moscow’s forces now control nearly a fifth of Ukraine.

DIFFERENCES

On territory, the Witkoff proposals called for legal U.S. recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Moscow seized and annexed in 2014, plus de facto recognition of Russia’s hold on areas of southern and eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces control.

In contrast, the European and Ukrainian document defers detailed discussion about territory until after a ceasefire is concluded, with no mention in the document of recognising Russian control over any Ukrainian territory.

Tensions over the Crimea issue became evident this week, as Trump criticised Zelenskiy after the Ukrainian leader reiterated that Kyiv would not recognise the peninsula as Russian.

Trump said in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia” and that “I don’t think (Ukraine will) ever be able to join NATO.”

On Ukraine’s long-term security, the Witkoff document states Ukraine will have a “robust security guarantee” with European and other friendly states acting as guarantors. It gives no further detail on this but says Kyiv will not seek to join NATO.

The rival document is more specific, stating there will be no limits on Ukrainian forces and no restrictions on Ukraine’s allies stationing their military forces on Ukrainian soil — a provision likely to irk Moscow.

It proposes robust security guarantees for Kyiv including from the United States with an “Article 5-like agreement”, a reference to NATO’s mutual defence clause.

On economic measures, the Witkoff proposals say that sanctions in place on Russia since its 2014 annexation of Crimea will be removed as part of the deal under discussion.

The counterproposals say that “US sanctions imposed on Russia since 2014 may be subject to gradual easing after a sustainable peace is achieved” and that they can be re-instated if Russia breaches the terms of the peace deal.

The European and Ukrainian document also proposes Ukraine receives financial compensation for damage inflicted in the war from Russian assets abroad that have been frozen. The Witkoff text says only that Ukraine will be compensated financially, without giving the source of the money.

PRESSURE

Both Kyiv and Moscow are trying to show Trump they are making progress towards his goal of a rapid peace deal after the U.S. threatened to abandon its peace push.
Zelenskiy said on Thursday the talks in London had not been easy but were “constructive”.

Three European diplomats voiced frustrations to Reuters, saying they initially thought the talks in Paris had been constructive, a basis to move forward and continue refining positions at the London talks before Witkoff returned to Moscow.

But in the following days there was a growing sense that the U.S. negotiators were being pressured to make headway on a deal, they said. This, they said, made them concerned that the Ukrainians and Europeans could be backed into a corner and rushed into an agreement.

The London meeting, the diplomats said, was used to pull together the European and Ukrainian counter position for U.S. representative Keith Kellogg to take back to Washington.