EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas yesterday said that Kyiv and Europe needed to be involved in any Ukraine peace plan, as the US pushes a new proposal that appears to repeat Russia’s demands.
“For any plan to work, it needs Ukrainians and Europeans on board,” Kallas told reporters ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. “We have to understand that in this war, there is one aggressor and one victim. So we haven’t heard of any concessions on the Russian side.”
The US has signaled to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Ukraine must accept a US-drafted framework to end the war with Russia that proposes Kyiv giving up territory and some weapons, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Photo: Reuters
The sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the proposals included cutting the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, among other things.
Such a plan would represent a major setback for Kyiv as it faces further Russian territorial gains in eastern Ukraine and with Zelenskiy tackling a corruption scandal, which on Wednesday saw parliament dismiss the nation’s energy and justice ministers.
Kallas said that as far as she knew there had been no input from Ukraine or its European backers on the deal.
“We welcome all meaningful efforts to end this war, but like we have said before it has to be just and lasting,” she said. “If Russia really wanted peace it could have agreed to an unconditional ceasefire already.”
French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot insisted that peace in Ukraine could not mean “capitulation” for Kyiv.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that Washington “will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”
“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas. And achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions,” Rubio said.
A senior Ukrainian official earlier said that Kyiv had received “signals” about a set of US proposals to end the war that Washington has discussed with Russia.
Ukraine has had no role in preparing the peace proposals, the source said.
Zelenskiy, who on Wednesday held talks in Ankara with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, was yesterday due to meet US Army officials in Kyiv.
In comments on Telegram, Zelenskiy did not mention Washington’s framework, but called for effective US leadership to help bring the more than three-and-a-half-year-old war to an end.
“The main thing for stopping the bloodshed and achieving lasting peace is that we work in coordination with all our partners and that American leadership remains effective, strong,” Zelenskiy wrote after meeting Erdogan.
Separately, Zelenskiy yesterday that said 22 people were still missing in Ternopil, a day after a Russian strike there killed at least 26 people, including three children.
In one of the deadliest strikes on western Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, a missile ripped off the top floors of a block of apartments in the city, with rescuers struggling to search for survivors amid the rubble.
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