President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Kyiv is ready to advance a U.S.-backed peace deal and is prepared to address its most sensitive points directly with U.S. President Donald Trump, in talks he said should also involve key European partners.
In a speech to the so-called coalition of the willing, seen by Reuters, Zelenskyy urged European leaders to help design a framework for deploying a “reassurance force” to Ukraine and to maintain long-term backing “as long as Moscow shows no willingness to end its war.”
A senior Ukrainian official said Kyiv and Washington have agreed on the core terms of the U.S. plan, initially presented as a 28-point proposal to end the conflict. “Our delegations reached a common understanding on the main elements discussed in Geneva,” said Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council. He said Ukraine hopes to finalize the agreement during Zelenskyy’s planned visit to Washington.
U.S. media reported Tuesday that Ukraine has broadly “agreed to a peace deal,” though details remain under negotiation. Senior U.S. officials are currently in Abu Dhabi for talks with Russian counterparts, according to reports by CBS, CNN and the Wall Street Journal. U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll has led discussions since Monday.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on X that “a few delicate but not insurmountable details” still require trilateral talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States.
The original U.S. plan – later heavily reworked by European and Ukrainian diplomats – was initially welcomed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a basis for a final peace settlement.” Moscow has since warned against changes that would tilt the deal toward Kyiv. Media reports now point to a roughly 20-point framework, though specifics remain undisclosed.
The New York Times reported that several contentious matters, including limits on Ukraine’s troop strength, future borders and a proposed ban on NATO troop deployments in Ukraine, have been set aside for later talks.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament that the road to peace remains “tough,” stressing that Ukraine’s sovereignty must be upheld. French President Emmanuel Macron said European states may need to provide security guarantees and potentially support the deployment of a “security force” inside Ukraine under a cease-fire.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any future European security architecture would be “impossible without the participation of Europeans,” while reaffirming Moscow’s preference for a diplomatic resolution. He noted that Russia regarded the original 28-point plan as workable before it was significantly revised.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized European governments, accusing Germany and others of squandering past chances to help resolve tensions under the Minsk agreements of 2014–15, which envisioned autonomy for the eastern Donbass region but were never fully implemented.
