US military officials in Ukraine for talks on ending war

Senior Pentagon officials have arrived in Ukraine to “discuss efforts to end the war” with Russia, the US military has said.

The team, led by US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday when he returns from a trip to Turkey.

Reports began surfacing on Wednesday that the US and Russia had prepared a new peace plan, containing major concessions from Ukraine. Neither Washington nor Moscow has officially confirmed the plan.

Earlier in the day, at least 26 people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s western city of Ternopil, officials there said. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Secretary Driscoll and team arrived this morning in Kyiv on behalf of the administration on a factfinding mission to meet Ukrainian officials and discuss efforts to end the war,” Army spokesman Col David Butler said in a statement.

Driscoll is joined by the US Army’s chief of staff Gen Randy George, top US army commander in Europe Gen Chris Donahue, and Srg Maj of the Army Michael Weimer.

Driscoll and Gen George are the most senior US military officials to hold talks in the Ukrainian capital since President Donald Trump took office in January.

An image on Wednesday showed Driscoll meeting and shaking hands with Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal.

In a post on X afterwards, Shmyhal said: “We focused on the next steps for implementing the historic defence agreements reached by President Zelensky and President Trump”.

He also thanked Washington for “approving the sale of a support package for the PATRIOT air-defence system worth approximately $105m (£80m)”.

Earlier, a Ukrainian official told CBS, the BBC’s US media partner, that talks on the trip would focus on the military situation on the ground – as well as plans for a possible ceasefire.

The official – who was not named – said: “Presidents Zelensky and Trump have already agreed to stop the conflict along the existing lines of engagement, and there are agreements on granting security guarantees”.

It comes as a number of outlets are reporting that the US and Russia have privately drawn up proposals on how to end the war.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Axios, the Financial Times and Reuters reported that the plans call for Kyiv to give up some territories and weapons, as well as to significantly cut Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev are believed to have been involved in working on the 28-point peace plan.

The BBC has asked the White House and a representative for Witkoff to comment.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to downplay the reports.

“In this case, we have no additional innovations to what we call ‘the spirit of Anchorage’,” he told Russia’s state-run media on Wednesday – referring to the August summit between Putin and Trump in the US state of Alaska.

Any agreements reached during the one-day meeting have not been made public.

President Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Russia.

Kyiv and its Western allies, including the US, have been calling for an immediate ceasefire along the vast front line, but Moscow has ruled that out, repeating demands that Ukraine says amount to its de facto capitulation.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow’s pre-conditions for a peace deal – including ceding territory, tough curbs on the size of Ukraine’s military and the country’s neutrality – had not changed since Putin laid them out two months before the full-scale invasion.

Meanwhile, a White House official confirmed to the BBC that special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg will leave his post in January.

He reportedly decided that this would be a natural end to his time in the post, which requires Senate approval beyond 360 days.

Kellogg has been seen as an important advocate for Ukraine in the White House during a time when Trump has often appeared to side with Russia in the conflict.