Ukraine has presented the U.S. with a revised 20-point framework to end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday, adding that the issue of ceding territory remains a major sticking point in negotiations.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said Washington was proposing, as a compromise, the creation of a ‘free economic zone’ in the Ukraine-controlled parts of eastern Donbas, which Russia has demanded Ukraine hand over.
"They see it as Ukrainian troops withdrawing from the Donetsk region, and the compromise is supposedly that Russian troops will not enter this part of Donetsk region. They do not know who will govern this territory," he said, adding that Russia is referring to it as a "demilitarised zone".
However, Zelenskyy said there was still no common understanding on the land issue and that Ukrainians should vote on any territorial concessions in a referendum.
Kyiv, in the latest round of frantic shuttle diplomacy, is seeking to balance out a U.S.-backed plan whose original version was seen as too favourable to Moscow.
Zelenskyy added that Russia’s withdrawal from small areas in the northeastern Kharkiv and Sumy regions, as well as the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, was under discussion.
He said the contact lines in the partially occupied southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson would be frozen where they currently stand.
The U.S. has also proposed potential joint governance of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe, which is currently held by Russia and which Moscow wants to retain under its control.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will send a representative to participate in talks in Europe on Ukraine this weekend if there's a good chance of making progress on a ceasefire deal.
"We'll see whether or not we attend the meeting," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
"We'll be attending the meeting on Saturday in Europe if we think there's a good chance. And we don't want to waste a lot of time if we think it's negative," Trump added.
Ukraine is under mounting U.S. pressure to secure a deal with Russia, which has stepped up advances along the frontline in recent months and renewed large-scale attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Following reports that President Trump had set a Christmas deadline for Ukraine to accept the proposal, Zelenskyy said Washington had not given Kyiv a strict timeline.
"I think they really wanted, or perhaps still want, to have a complete understanding of where we stand with this agreement by Christmas," he said.
Alongside the 20-point framework, the wider peace plan will include separate documents on security guarantees, intended to prevent a future Russian offensive, and on rebuilding Ukraine’s war-damaged cities.
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How do political narratives travel from Moscow to Westminster?
The Kremlin is utilising the recent United States and Israeli military strikes on Iran to validate its ongoing war in Ukraine. Russian officials are pointing to the escalation in the Middle East as evidence that Western nations do not adhere to international rules.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved an $8.1 billion, four-year Extended Fund Facility programme for Ukraine on Thursday, aimed at preserving macroeconomic and financial stability as the war with Russia continues into its fifth year.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday (26 February) accused Ukraine of threatening Europe’s energy security by halting oil flows through the Druzhba oil pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. military has enough stockpiled weapons to fight wars "forever"; in a social media post late on Monday. The remarks came hours before conflict in Iran and the Middle East entered its fourth day.
U.S. first lady, Melania Trump chaired a UN Security Council meeting on children and education in conflict on Monday (2 March), a move criticised by Iran as hypocritical following U.S. and Israeli strikes that triggered a UN warning about risks to children.
A torpedo from a U.S. submarine sunk an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth told reporters as the Iranian conflcit entered its fifth day on Wednesday.
The U.S. embassy in Riyadh was hit by two drones resulting in a limited fire and some material damage, the kingdom's defence ministry said in a post on X on Tuesday, citing an initial assessment.
Shahid Motahari Sub-Speciality Hospital in northern Tehran and parts of the Golestan Palace were bombed on day two of the U.S.‑Israel strikes. AnewZ Touraj Shiralilou is in Iran's capital city and said that the facility was flattened in an airstrike.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the United States is making gains in its conflict with Iran after a key Iranian naval target was destroyed, confirming that the strike was carried out by a U.S. submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka. Rescue efforts are now under way for the ship’s crew.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 4th of February, covering the latest developments you need to know.
Strikes across the Middle East are intensifying, fuelling travel disruption, driving up global energy prices and forcing diplomatic missions to shut their doors.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said the United States has a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions and is capable of sustaining military action indefinitely, as the conflict with Iran entered its fourth day.
The United Nations has called for an investigation into a deadly attack on a girls’ primary school in Iran, which Iranian officials say has killed more than 100 children. The U.S. has said its forces “would not” deliberately target a school.
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