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Ukraine won some concessions in the latest version of the US-led draft plan to expire invasion of Russia revealed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, although important questions remain on whether Moscow will accept the new terms.
The 20-point plan, agreed upon by US and Ukrainian negotiators, has been under review by Moscow, but the Kremlin has so far refused to abandon its demands for a permanent Ukrainian withdrawal from the east.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that Moscow was “still forming its position” and declined to comment on the details of the latest plan. He said that Moscow believes that it is “very wrong to do any kind of media communication.”
Zelenskyy told reporters about each point of the plan on Tuesday, but reporters were not authorized to reveal details until Wednesday morning.
Zelenskyy admitted that there are some points in the document that he does not like, but he said that Kyiv succeeded in removing Ukraine’s urgent needs to withdraw from the industrialized Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine or that the area occupied by Moscow’s troops will be recognized as Russia.
However, the Ukrainian leader indicated that the proposal would pave the way for Kyiv to pull back troops, including 20 percent of the Donetsk region it controls, where no-target areas would be established.
It also ended demands that Kyiv formally abandon its bid for NATO membership.
Zelenskyy introduced the program during a two-hour talk with journalists, reading from a highlighted and annotated version.
“In the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, the line of military deployment from the date of this agreement is recognized as a line of communication,” Zelenskyy said about the latest version.
“The working group will meet to determine the redeployment of forces needed to end the conflict, as well as to define the boundaries of future exclusive economic zones,” he added.
This seems to suggest that the plan paves the way for, but delays, options that Ukraine has been reluctant to consider — the withdrawal of troops and the creation of demilitarized zones.
“We are in a situation where the Russians want us to withdraw from the Donetsk region, while the Americans are trying to find a way,” Zelenskyy said.
“They want a demilitarized zone or a free economic zone, which means a format that can satisfy both sides,” he continued.
President Trump is trying to make money to end the four-year war started by the Russian invasion by 2022.
Tens of thousands died, eastern Ukraine was decimated and millions were forced to flee their homes.
The Russian military has been at the forefront as well hammer cities and the Ukrainian power grid with night missiles and drone barrages. The Ministry of Defense on Wednesday said it had captured another Ukrainian settlement, in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.
Moscow claimed that by 2022 it had annexed four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia – in addition to the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014.
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin has shown no willingness to compromise, repeating his strong demands for a full withdrawal from Ukraine and a series of political deals that Kyiv and its European allies have made as commitments.
Any plan involving Ukraine withdrawing its troops would need to be approved in a referendum in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.
“It’s a free economic zone. If we discuss this, we should go to a referendum,” Zelenskyy said, referring to plans to designate Ukraine’s exit zones as prohibited free trade zones.
Regarding NATO, Zelenskyy said “it is the choice of NATO members to be with Ukraine or not. We made our choice. We walked away from the proposed changes to the Constitution of Ukraine that would have prevented Ukraine from joining NATO.”
However, the prospects of Ukraine being accepted into the bloc seem dim, as Washington has ruled out.
Moscow has repeatedly said that Ukraine’s NATO membership is unacceptable, citing it as one of the reasons it attacked in the first place.
The plan sees a joint US-Ukrainian-Russian administration of Nuclear power system in Zaporizhzhiat, the largest in Europe, housing the Russian military. Zelenskyy said that he does not want to be monitored by Russia in this institution.
He also said that Ukraine will hold presidential elections only after the agreement is signed – something that both Mr. Trump and Putin have been pushing it.
Russian officials have repeatedly criticized European and Ukrainian efforts to amend the original US plan that includes many of Moscow’s demands.
Direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators earlier this year in Istanbul failed to break the deadlock and despite the diplomatic turmoil, the two countries’ positions appear far apart.
