US hails ‘tremendous progress’ at Ukraine peace talks

A “tremendous amount of progress” has been achieved in talks to finalise a US-proposed peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.

But “there’s still some work to be done”, Rubio said after meeting Ukrainian and European negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were “signals that President [Donald] Trump’s team is hearing us”.

Ukraine and its European allies had expressed concern over the leaked proposals, seen as favouring Russia and welcomed by Vladimir Putin as “the basis” for settlement. Zelensky had said Ukraine “might face a very difficult choice: either losing dignity, or risk losing a key partner”.

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 the parties involved had achieved that in a “substantial way”.

However, America’s top diplomat added that any final agreement would have to be agreed by the Ukrainian and US presidents – before the package was sent to Russia – and that there were still a couple of issues they need to continue to work on.

A joint US-Ukraine statement issued later on Sunday said that an “updated and refined peace framework” had been agreed by both countries, and that they agreed to “intensive work on joint proposals in the coming days”.

Several media outlets reported they had seen an alternative plan from 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.

Earlier on Sunday, 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 staunchest allies – was continuing to buy oil from Russia.

Moscow relies heavily on its oil and gas exports to continue financing its war in Ukraine.

The Geneva talks are focusing on the US draft, the leaked version of which includes a Ukrainian troop withdrawal from the part of the eastern Donetsk region that they currently control, and the de facto Russian control of Donetsk, as well as the neighbouring Luhansk region in addition to the southern Crimea peninsula 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. Both regions are partially occupied by Russia.

The US plan also limits Ukraine’s military to 600,000 personnel – 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.

Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory and its troops have been making slow advances along the vast front line, despite reported heavy losses.

Trump has given Ukraine until this coming Thursday to agree the proposals.

But he then said this was not his “final offer” for Kyiv, after Ukraine’s allies from Europe, Canada and Japan voiced 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 were forced to insist 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”.