Russia

Ukraine says it supports the “essence” of a United States plan to end its war with Russia, as US President Donald Trump said “progress” is being made on securing a deal and that he would dispatch his special envoy to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

Tuesday saw a flurry of diplomatic activity after US and Ukrainian negotiators met two days earlier in Geneva to discuss Trump’s initial peace plan, which had been seen in Ukraine as a Russian wish list calling on Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow, limit its military and give up on joining NATO.

The plan has since been modified, with the emerging proposal reportedly accomodating concerns of Ukraine and its European allies.

Speaking at a video conference of the so-called coalition of the willing – a group of 30 countries supporting Ukraine – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ready to “move forward” with the as-yet-unpublished “framework”, though he still needed to address “sensitive points”.

Earlier, a Ukrainian official had told the Reuters news agency that Kyiv supported “the framework’s essence”. Building on that sense of momentum, Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, who led negotiations in Geneva, told US news website Axios that the security guarantees Ukraine was seeking looked “very solid”.

Speaking at the White House, Trump conceded that resolving the Ukraine war was “not easy”, but added, “We’re getting close to a deal.”

“I thought that would be an easier [deal], but I think we’re making progress,” he said.

Taking to his Truth Social platform later on, he said that he would send envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to iron out “a few” remaining differences over the deal.

He said he hoped to meet “soon” with Putin and Zelenskyy, “but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages”.

Russia, which had hammered Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with a deadly barrage of missiles the previous night, seemed unconvinced of progress.

Russia has not yet seen the modified plan, which remains unpublished, but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined that it should reflect the “spirit and letter” of an understanding reached between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at their Alaska summit earlier this year.

“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established, then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation [for Russia],” Lavrov warned.

Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said there was a lot of “uncertainty” at the Kremlin, though there had allegedly been “behind-the-scenes interactions” between Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev and US counterpart Steve Witkoff, “who reportedly worked on the initial stage” of Trump’s plan.

The Russian side, she said, was not happy about revisions to the peace plan.

“Unlike the initial American plan presented by Donald Trump, which consisted of 28 points, the so-called European version doesn’t include withdrawing the Ukrainian armed forces from Donbas, it allows Kyiv to join NATO, and it doesn’t limit the size of its armed forces,” Shapovalova said.

Still, US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll had earlier emerged upbeat from meeting with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, with his spokesman saying: “The talks are going well and we remain optimistic.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that there were “a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States”.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said it was “unclear when those talks will happen, who will be involved, and what they will look like”. But, she added, it was clear they would not be imminent, given the upcoming American Thanksgiving holiday on November 27.

Macron urges ‘pressure’ on Putin

As the US strained to bridge the gap between Ukraine and Russia, leaders in the coalition of the willing, who have pledged to underwrite and guarantee any ceasefire, moved fast on security guarantees and a reconstruction plan for Ukraine.

In the video meeting, co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with Zelenskyy and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in attendance, the leaders decided to set up a task force between the US and coalition countries to “solidify” security guarantees.

Trump has not committed to providing back-up for a post-ceasefire “reassurance force” for Ukraine. The plan for the force involves European allies training Ukrainian troops and providing sea and air support, but would be reliant on US military muscle to work.

Speaking after the video call, Macron said discussions in Geneva had shown that there should be no limitations to the Ukrainian army, contrary to what had been outlined in the initial draft of the US plan.

He also said a decision on using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s reconstruction, at the heart of a political and legal impasse in a Europe seeking funding for Ukraine, would be “finalised in the coming days” with the European Commission.

Western countries froze approximately $300bn in Russian assets in 2022, mostly in Belgium, but there has been no consensus on how to proceed. Some support seizing the assets, while others, like Belgium, remain cautious owing to legal concerns.

According to reports, Trump’s plan would split the assets between reconstruction and US-Russia investments.

Macron hit out at Russia, saying “continued pressure” should be put on Moscow to negotiate. “On the ground, the reality is quite the opposite of a willingness for peace,” he said, alluding to Russia’s overnight attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, which left seven dead and disrupted power and heating systems.

In his daily evening address, Zelenskyy said: “What is especially cynical is that Russia carried out such strikes while talks are under way on how to end the war”.

Eldar Mamedov, a fellow at Quincy Institute, says given the history of Baltic states under Soviet rule, many fear more aggression from Russia if Ukraine is forced to give up land.

Beijing carries out emergency launch to relieve space station crew left without working return capsule.

China has rushed to launch an uncrewed spacecraft to relieve three astronauts left on board the Tiangong space station without a passage to Earth.

State broadcaster CCTV showed a Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre shortly after noon local time (04:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

The Shenzhou-22 mission was originally planned to be crewed and take off in 2026.

However, the launch was brought forward after debris damaged the Shenzhou-20, which is currently attached to the Tiangong station, making it unsafe for carrying humans to Earth.

That disrupted the last crew change on the permanently crewed Chinese space station in November.

Unable to fly home in Shenzhou-20, the three astronauts who had arrived in April for their six-month stay were forced to use Shenzhou-21 to return to Earth.

That left the three astronauts currently on board Tiangong without a flightworthy vessel that could return them home in the event of an emergency.

The uncrewed Shenzhou-22 will fill that gap.

The crew at the space station – Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang – are “working normally”, Chinese officials emphasised.

The incident marks a rare setback for China’s rapidly growing space programme, which plans to send astronauts to the moon by 2030.

Beijing has poured billions into the sector in recent decades as it seeks to match the capabilities of the United States, Russia and Europe.

China became the third country to send humans into orbit after the US and the former Soviet Union in 2022.

Russian forces have launched a drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, killing at least one person, as officials from Ukraine and the United States sought to rework a plan proposed by Washington to end the war.

In a statement on Tuesday, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the overnight attack on Kyiv damaged residential buildings in the Pecherskyi and Dniprovskyi districts.

“In Kyiv, as a result of a night attack, two people were killed, six were injured, and 18 people were rescued, including three children,” the service said.

Another attack on Brovarsky, Bila Tserkva and Vyshgorod districts, hours later, wounded a 14-year-old child, it added.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

The attack followed talks between US and Ukrainian representatives in Switzerland’s Geneva to thrash out Washington’s so-called 28-point plan, which Kyiv and its European allies saw as a Kremlin wish list.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his nightly address late on Monday, said the talks in Geneva mean the “list of the necessary steps to end the war can become doable”.

But he said there remained “sensitive issues” that he will discuss with US President Donald Trump

“After Geneva, there are fewer points – no longer 28 – and many of the right elements have been taken into account in this framework. There is still work for all of us to do together – it is very challenging – to finalise the document, and we must do everything with dignity,” he said.

“Ukraine will never be an obstacle to peace – this is our principle, a shared principle, and millions of Ukrainians are counting on, and deserve, a dignified peace,” he added.

No Trump-Zelenskyy meeting scheduled

Trump, too, hinted at new progress.

“Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening,” the US president wrote earlier on Monday on his Truth Social platform.

At the White House, spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said there were a couple of points of disagreement remaining, but “we’re confident that we’ll be able to work through those.”

She said Trump wanted a deal as quickly as possible, but there was no meeting currently scheduled between the US president and Zelenskyy.

Trump, who returned to office this year pledging to end the war quickly, has reoriented US policy from staunch support for Kyiv towards accepting some of Russia’s justifications for its 2022 invasion.

US policy towards the war has been inconsistent. Trump’s hastily arranged Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in August led to worries that Washington was prepared to accept many Russian demands, but ultimately resulted in more US pressure on Russia.

The latest, 28-point peace proposal again caught many in the US government, Kyiv and Europe off-guard and prompted new concerns that the Trump administration might be willing to push Ukraine to sign a peace deal heavily tilted towards Moscow.

The plan would require Kyiv to cede more territory, accept curbs on its military and bar it from ever joining NATO, conditions Kyiv has long rejected as tantamount to surrender.

It would also do nothing to allay broader European fears of further Russian aggression.

Ukraine’s European allies drew up a counter-proposal which, according to the Reuters news agency, would halt fighting at the present front lines, leaving discussions of territory for later, and include a NATO-style US security guarantee for Ukraine.

A new version of a draft worked on in Geneva has not been published.

Kremlin slams EU proposal

An adviser to Zelenskyy who attended the talks in Geneva told The Associated Press news agency they managed to discuss almost all the plan’s points, and one unresolved issue is that of territory, which can only be decided at the head-of-state level.

Oleksandr Bevz also said the US showed “great openness and understanding” that security guarantees are the cornerstone of any agreement for Ukraine.

He said the US would continue working on the plan, and then the leaders of Ukraine and the US would meet. After that, the plan would be presented to Russia.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, speaking to reporters, welcomed the “interim result” of the Geneva talks, saying the US proposal “has now been modified in significant parts”, without details.

Merz added that Moscow must now become engaged in the process.

“The next step must be that Russia must come to the table,” he said in Angola, where he was attending a summit between African and European Union countries. “This is a laborious process. It will move forward at most in smaller steps this week. I do not expect there to be a breakthrough this week.”

The Kremlin said it had yet to see the revised peace plan.

Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov added there was no plan for US and Russian delegations to meet this week, but the Russian side remained “open for such contacts”.

Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, said the plan the Kremlin had received before the Geneva talks had many provisions that “seem quite acceptable” to Moscow. But he described European proposals “floating around” as “completely unconstructive”.

Countries supporting Kyiv – part of the “coalition of the willing” – are meanwhile due to hold a video call on Tuesday following the Geneva talks.

Turkiye also said it hopes to build bridges between Russia and Ukraine.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said he spoke to Putin by telephone and told him Ankara will contribute to any diplomatic effort to facilitate direct contact between Russia and Ukraine.

Erdogan “stated that Turkiye will continue its efforts for the termination of the Russia-Ukraine war with a fair and lasting peace”, his office said.

Here are the key events from day 1,370 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Tuesday, November 25.

Trump’s plan

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a proposed peace plan now under discussion with the United States and Europe has incorporated “correct” points, but sensitive issues still need to be discussed with US President Donald Trump.
• Zelenskyy added that if negotiations proceeded on resolving the war, “there must be no missiles, no massive strikes on Ukraine and our people”.
• Trump also hinted at new progress in the talks, which took place in Geneva. “Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening,” he wrote on Truth Social.
• A senior official told the AFP news agency that the US pressed Ukraine to accept the deal in Geneva, despite Kyiv’s protests that the plan conceded too much to Moscow. The official said Washington did not directly threaten to cut off aid if Kyiv rejected its deal, but that Ukraine understood this was a distinct possibility.
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that there is no meeting scheduled between Trump and Zelenskyy this week amid reports of a possible trip by the Ukrainian leader to the US capital.
• Leavitt told US broadcaster Fox News that “a couple of points of disagreement” remain between the US and Ukraine on a potential deal to end Russia’s invasion.
• Leavitt also pushed back against criticism, including from within Trump’s Republican Party, that the president is favouring Russia in efforts to end the war in Ukraine, describing those statements as “complete and total fallacy”. She said the US president was “hopeful and optimistic” that a plan could be worked out.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would wait to see how talks between the US and Ukraine on a potential peace plan pan out, and would not be commenting on media reports about such a serious and complex issue.
• But Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said that a European counter-proposal to a US 28-point peace plan for Ukraine was “not constructive” and that it simply did not work for Moscow.
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there was more work to do to establish a “just and lasting peace” in Ukraine, but added that progress was being made.
• Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, too, welcomed progress made at the meetings in Geneva, but added that major issues remain to be resolved.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said no deal regarding Ukraine can be allowed to undermine the security of Poland and Europe; on the contrary, it should strengthen it.
• German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that the talks in Geneva on amending Trump’s 28-point plan to end the war with Russia had produced a “decisive success” for Europeans. Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said that to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine, its borders can’t be changed by force and there can’t be limitations on Ukraine’s military that would invite further Russian aggression.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a phone call that Ankara will contribute to any diplomatic effort to facilitate direct contact between Russia and Ukraine and to reach a “just and lasting” peace, his office said.

Fighting

• Powerful explosions rocked Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on Tuesday as the Ukrainian air force issued a warning about missile attacks across the country.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said the country’s air defences shot down 10 drones en route to Moscow, a day after a Ukrainian strike on a power plant cut off heating in a town near the capital. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said emergency services were clearing up sites where debris from drones had fallen.
• The Defence Ministry added that a total of 50 Ukrainian drones were downed across the Moscow, Bryansk, Kaluga and Kursk regions, as well as Crimea and over the waters of the Black Sea.

Politics

• Polish prosecutors have arrested and charged a third Ukrainian man suspected of collaborating with Russia to sabotage a rail track, authorities said. Two other Ukrainians, who fled to Belarus, had already been charged in absentia over the blast on the Warsaw-Lublin line connecting Warsaw to the Ukrainian border.

• Two young street musicians who were jailed for more than a month in Russia for singing anti-Kremlin songs have left the country after being released from detention, according to Russian media reports. Vocalist Diana Loginova, 18, and guitarist Alexander Orlov, 22, were detained on October 15 in central St Petersburg after an impromptu street performance deemed critical of Putin and the government.

Energy

• Oil prices climbed about 1 percent on mounting doubts about whether Russia will get a peace deal with Ukraine that will boost Moscow’s oil exports. Brent futures rose 81 cents, or 1.3 percent, to settle at $63.37 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 78 cents, or 1.3 percent, to settle at $58.84.

• Four opposition Democratic US senators, including Elizabeth Warren, said that the lax enforcement by the Trump administration of sanctions on Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 export terminal has allowed China to buy discounted liquefied natural gas and has helped Moscow fund the war in Ukraine.

• A heating and power plant in Russia’s Moscow region has resumed operations after shutting down due to a fire caused by a Ukrainian drone strike on Sunday, regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said.

• Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse resumed oil product exports last week after a two-week suspension following Ukrainian drone attacks, while the local oil refinery has restarted processing crude, the Reuters news agency reported, citing industry sources and data.

• Russian state oil and gas revenue may fall in November by about 35 percent from the corresponding month in 2024 to 520 billion roubles ($6.59bn) due to cheaper oil and a stronger local currency, according to calculations and analysis by Reuters.

European allies of Ukraine have given a cautious welcome to efforts to refine a United States peace proposal initially criticised for appearing to be weighted in favour of Russia’s maximalist demands.

The leaders Germany, Finland, Poland and the United Kingdom were among those agreeing on Monday that progress had been made in the previous day’s talks between Washington and Kyiv in Geneva that yielded what the US and Ukraine called a “refined peace framework”.

Still, the European leaders stressed work remained to be done.

“It was possible to clear up some questions, but we also know that there won’t be peace in Ukraine overnight,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, adding that the peace plan initially drafted by the US had been “modified in significant parts”.

He welcomed the “interim result”.

“The next step must be that Russia must come to the table,” he said from Angola, where he was attending a summit between African and European Union countries. “This is a laborious process. It will move forward at most in smaller steps this week. I do not expect there to be a breakthrough this week.”

US President Donald Trump had blindsided Kyiv and its European countries last week with a 28-point peace plan criticised by some as a Russian wish list that called for Ukraine to cede more territory, accept limits on its military and abandon its ambitions to join NATO.

Britain, France and Germany responded by drawing up a counter-proposal that would cease fighting at present front lines, leaving discussions of territory for later, and include a NATO-style US security guarantee for Ukraine, according to a draft seen by Reuters news agency.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Ukraine’s allies in the “coalition of the willing” – a broad term for about 30 countries supporting Kyiv – will hold talks about the negotiations on Tuesday by video.

The German Foreign Office said that chief diplomats of Germany, Finland, France, the UK, Italy and Poland consulted Monday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha on further steps toward ending the war.

Also attending the summit in Angola, European Council President Antonio Costa said there was “new momentum” in negotiations.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union would “engage further tomorrow with our partners from the coalition of the willing”.

‘Big progress’

On Monday, Trump indicated Sunday’s talks had gone well.

“Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening,” the US President wrote on Truth Social.

Trump had given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is under the doubled pressure of Russia’s continued advance on the front line and a corruption scandal that has tainted his administration, until Thursday to agree to a framework to end the war. He also accused Zelenskyy of showing “zero gratitude” for peace efforts.

Zelenskyy said on X on Monday that he was expecting a full report that evening on the Geneva talks.

“To achieve real peace, more, more is needed. Of course, we all continue working with partners, especially the United States, and look for compromises that strengthen but not weaken us,” he said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also said on Monday that negotiations were a “delicate matter” since “no one wants to discourage Americans and President Trump from having the United States on our side in this process”.

The Kremlin said it had not been informed of the results of the Geneva talks, but that it was aware that “adjustments” were made to the US proposal.

In a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated his view that the initial US plan could “serve as a basis for a final peace settlement”.

During the call, Erdogan said Turkiye was ready to support efforts to bring Russia and Ukraine together, including helping to facilitate direct talks between the two.

However, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said the European plan appeared “entirely unconstructive and unsuitable for us”, according to a report in the Russian state-run TASS news agency.

Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said Russia was unlikely to accept the European revisions.

“If all Russian conditions and interests are not taken into account, Russia is ready to continue fighting because, according to Vladimir Putin, Russia is pretty successful on the battlefield and it wants to achieve its goals,” she said.

In comments made by video to a meeting at the Swedish Parliament, Zelenskyy had indicated that territory would still be a key sticking point, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of seeking “legal recognition for what he has stolen”.

Grim reality

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has decimated the east of the country, forcing millions to flee their homes, ravaging towns and cities, and killing tens of thousands in Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.

On Monday, the war continued to grind on, with Russian forces keeping up their deadly and devastating strikes on civilian areas while making battlefield advances in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhia region.

Russian drones hit residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city overnight, killing four people and wounding 13, including two children, authorities said.

On Monday, Russian forces struck the city of Pavlohrad in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region with drones, wounding three people and damaging industrial facilities, according to regional authorities.

That morning, Russian shelling killed a 61-year-old woman in Kherson, according to the military administration of the city in southern Ukraine.

Across the border, Russian air defences downed Ukrainian drones en route to Moscow, forcing three airports serving the capital to pause flights.

A reported Ukrainian drone strike on Sunday knocked power out for thousands of residents near Moscow, a rare reversal of Russian attacks on energy targets that regularly cause power blackouts for millions of Ukrainians.

Talks in Geneva between the US and Ukraine aimed at ending the war with Russia have concluded, with officials from both sides reporting “progress” and an intention to continue working.

However, no details have emerged on how to bridge the considerable divide between Moscow and Kyiv over territorial issues and security guarantees for Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the “important steps” that had been made but warned that the “main problem” facing the peace talks was Vladimir Putin’s demand for legal recognition of Russian-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine.

“This would break the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he said, highlighting concerns that Moscow could be rewarded for its aggression with land it seized by force.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump suggested on social media that “something good just may be happening”, but with the caveat: “Don’t believe it until you see it.”

The Geneva talks did not involve Russian representatives and the Kremlin said it hadn’t received any information on the outcome of the discussions. Spokesman Dmitri Peskov noted Moscow was aware that “adjustments” were made to the plan that had been welcomed by Putin.

A 28-point peace plan drafted by US and Russian officials was presented to Ukraine last week. Several of its elements seemed heavily geared towards Moscow’s longstanding demands, sparking consternation in Kyiv and its European allies.

Comments by Trump which suggested Ukraine had until Thursday to accept the deal or face serious cuts in US support contributed to creating a sense of urgency across Europe and talks between Ukraine and US officials were hastily convened.

By Sunday evening US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a “tremendous” amount of progress had been made at the talks. “I honestly believe we’ll get there,” he said.

But some European leaders have been more cautious. “I am not sure if we are closer to peace,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said discussions would be a “lengthy, long-lasting process” and that he did not expect any breakthroughs this week.

Europeans were left scrambling for a seat at the table last week, after they were seemingly caught unawares when the US draft peace plan was presented.

A counter-proposal – reportedly drafted by Britain, France and Germany – excluded any recognition of Russian-held regions, raised Ukraine’s allowed army size and left the door open to Ukraine joining Nato.

Rubio said he was not aware of the plan and on Monday Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov rubbished it as “completely unconstructive”.

Since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has consistently demanded full Ukrainian withdrawal from the whole of the eastern Donbas region.

But Kyiv and its European partners are weary of any settlement which would jeopardise the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty – and Zelensky has repeatedly warned that giving up the Donbas would leave Ukraine vulnerable to Russian attacks in the future.

Despite last week’s frenzied diplomacy the next steps in the process are unclear.

The expectation is that Zelensky will soon personally speak to Trump, after which a new draft peace plan will be eventually presented to Moscow. There were no plans for a meeting this week between Russian and US negotiators, the Kremlin said.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said there was still work to do for a “just and lasting peace” in Ukraine. A virtual “coalition of the willing” meeting will take place on Tuesday to discuss developments, he added.

Russia is framing artificial intelligence as a geopolitical technology on par with nuclear weapons, with Sberbank First Deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin warning that only nations capable of building their own large language models will hold real influence in the 21st century. Speaking at Moscow’s flagship AI Journey event, Vedyakhin said Russia considers it a strategic achievement to be among the few countries with home-grown AI and insists the state must rely exclusively on domestic models for sensitive sectors like public services, healthcare, and education. His comments echo President Vladimir Putin’s recent remarks that indigenous AI is essential for Russian sovereignty. While Sberbank and Yandex lead Russia’s push to compete with U.S. and Chinese AI giants, sanctions and limited computing power continue to restrain Moscow’s capability.

Why It Matters

Russia’s framing of AI as a sovereignty-defining technology signals a hardening global divide in the race for digital power. By likening AI to nuclear capability, Moscow is underscoring the strategic leverage it believes advanced models can confer over national security, economic competitiveness, and societal infrastructure. For Western policymakers, the statement highlights how AI is increasingly entwined with geopolitical rivalry, sanctions regimes, and technological self-reliance. For markets, the message is more nuanced: despite the rhetoric, Russia admits it cannot match global leaders in compute or scale, and it warns investors that AI infrastructure spending may not repay itself quickly, raising questions about the economic viability of high-intensity AI development.

Russia’s state institutions, security apparatus, and public-service sectors are central consumers of domestic AI models as Moscow seeks digital autonomy. Sberbank and Yandex are the primary corporate developers, tasked with building national-scale models under sanctions constraints. Western governments and AI firms remain part of the geopolitical backdrop, as Russia’s push for self-sufficiency follows restricted access to advanced chips and cloud hardware. Russian businesses, from healthcare to education providers, will increasingly rely on domestic AI systems while international partners watch how far Russia can expand its capabilities without global supply chains.

What’s Next

Russia aims to expand from one or two national AI systems to several independent models, but its development will remain limited by restricted access to high-performance computing. Moscow will continue steering AI regulation toward data sovereignty, banning foreign models from handling state or sensitive information. As Russia ramps its rhetoric around AI power, expect greater global pressure for technological blocs, digital “non-alignment,” and AI export controls. Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s caution about an “AI bubble” hints that its investments will be narrower and more state-directed than those in the U.S. or China, potentially slowing innovation but avoiding the risk of overextension.

With information from Reuters.

Nov. 23 (UPI) — Talks between the United States and Ukraine in Switzerland have been the “most productive and meaningful so far,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday.

Officials from both countries are meeting in Switzerland as the United States works to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine in the latest chapter of war between the two counties, which has dragged on since early 2022.

Ukrainian and Russian officials have presented the draft of a 28-point plan aimed at ending the war. President Donald Trump has said he wants Ukraine to agree to the deal by Thursday, the BBC reported.

The plan suggests that Russia could be given more Ukrainian territory than it currently holds, puts limits on Ukraine’s army and prevents Ukraine from even becoming a member of NATO. These conditions hew very closely to Moscow’s demands for peace.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a social media post Sunday that European leaders stand ready to reach a deal “despite some reservations,” but said “Before we start our work, it would be good to know for sure who is the author of the plan and where was it created.”

A bipartisan group U.S. Senators told reporters that Rubio told them the deal was not authored by the United States, nor was it the sole position of the Trump administration, but a proposal drafted by Russia and given to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, NBC News reported.

Sen. Angus King, I-Me., said the plan appeared to be a “wish list of the Russians.”

Later, the U.S. State Department countered that claim, called King’s words “patently false,” and said the plan was indeed, the position of the Trump administration.

“The peace proposal was authored by the U.S.,” Rubio wrote on social media Saturday night. “It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”

The plan proposes that areas of Ukraine’s Donbas region still under Ukrainian control are ceded to Russia, that Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk are recognized as Russian territory by the United States and that Ukraine will reduce the number of troops in the region to 600,000.

Perhaps most controversially, the proposals also calls for Russia “to be reintegrated into the global economy” and be invited to rejoin the G8, an international forum for leaders of the world’s eight most industrialized nations.

The United States and Ukraine have announced a revised framework for ending the Russia-Ukraine war after an earlier proposal by Washington drew criticism for being too favourable to Moscow.

US and Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that they agreed that any deal to end Russia’s war should “fully uphold” Ukraine’s sovereignty as they unveiled an “updated and refined peace framework” that was scant on details.

“Both sides agreed the consultations were highly productive. The discussions showed meaningful progress toward aligning positions and identifying clear next steps,” officials said in a joint statement following talks in Geneva, adding that the sides agreed on the need for a “sustainable and just peace”.

Washington and Kyiv also reiterated their readiness to keep working together to “secure a peace that ensures Ukraine’s security, stability, and reconstruction”, the joint statement said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier on Sunday said the sides had made “tremendous” progress during the talks, though their joint statement offered no specifics for resolving the many thorny points of contention between Moscow and Kyiv.

Rubio said negotiators had made some changes to US President Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan, including around the role of NATO, to narrow the differences between the sides.

“I can tell you that the items that remain open are not insurmountable. We just need more time than what we have today. I honestly believe we’ll get there,” Rubio told reporters at the US mission in Geneva.

Rubio declined to go into specifics about the amendments to the draft proposal, including whether Kyiv had agreed to compromise on key Russian demands, such as territorial concessions.

“But I can tell you, I guess, that I feel very optimistic that we can get something done here because we made a tremendous amount of progress today,” Rubio said.

Rubio’s cautiously optimistic remarks came after Trump, who has given Ukraine until Thursday to accept his 28-point plan, had earlier accused Kyiv of being insufficiently grateful for his administration’s assistance.

“UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS, AND EUROPE CONTINUES TO BUY OIL FROM RUSSIA,” Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social.

Shortly after Trump’s comments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that he was grateful to the US and “personally to President Trump” for Washington’s assistance in repelling Moscow’s invasion.

Trump’s leaked blueprint for ending the war has caused consternation in Kyiv and European capitals due to its alignment with many of Moscow’s hardline demands, including that Ukraine limit the size of its military and give up Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk.

Zelenskyy said in a sombre national address last week that the plan put Ukraine in the position of having to choose between “losing dignity” or “losing a key partner”.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday that any peace plan needed to respect Ukraine’s freedom to “choose its own destiny,” including to join the bloc.

“It starts with the country’s reconstruction, its integration into our Single Market and our defence industrial base, and ultimately, joining our Union,” von der Leyen said in a statement.

Asked whether a deal could be reached by Trump’s Thursday deadline, Rubio said “we want to get this done as soon as possible”.

“Obviously, we would love it to be Thursday,” he said.

Rubio said the peace plan was a “living, breathing document” and would continue to change.

The top US diplomat also said the deal would need to be presented to Moscow for its approval.

“Obviously, the Russians get a vote here,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Trump’s plan could form the basis for a final peace settlement, but warned that Moscow would advance further into Ukrainian territory if Kyiv refused to negotiate.

Here are the key events from day 1,369 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Monday, November 24.

Trump’s plan

• United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Geneva that “a tremendous amount of progress” was made during talks in the Swiss city on Sunday and that he was “very optimistic” that an agreement could be reached in “a very reasonable period of time, very soon”.
• Rubio also said that specific areas still being worked on from a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine, championed by US President Donald Trump, included the role of NATO and security guarantees for Ukraine.
• Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s delegation, echoed Rubio’s sentiments, telling reporters that they made “very good progress” and were “moving forward to the just and lasting peace Ukrainian people deserve”.
• Trump had earlier posted on Truth Social saying that Ukraine was not grateful for US efforts. “UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS, AND EUROPE CONTINUES TO BUY OIL FROM RUSSIA,” Trump wrote.
• The US president’s post prompted a quick reply from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who wrote on X that his country was “grateful to the United States … and personally to President Trump” for the assistance that has been “saving Ukrainian lives”.
• Zelenskyy later said in his nightly video address that Trump’s team in Geneva was “hearing us [Ukraine]” and that talks were expected to continue into the night with “further reports” to come.
• US media outlet CBS reported that Zelenskyy could visit the US this week for direct talks with Trump, but that it would depend on the outcome in Geneva.
• French President Emanuel Macron said the European Union (EU) should continue to provide financial support for Ukraine and that he remains confident in Zelenskyy’s ability to improve his country’s track record against corruption, adding that Kyiv’s path to EU membership would require rule of law reforms.
• Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused EU leaders of deliberately prolonging the war, which he claimed Ukraine has “no chance” of winning. He also described ongoing EU support for Kyiv in the conflict as “just crazy”.

Fighting

• A “massive” Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Kharkiv killed four people and wounded 12 others on Sunday, according to local officials. The wounded included two children aged 11 and 12.
• The acting head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko, said that the region experienced a “difficult day”, with repeated Russian drone and shelling attacks that killed a 42-year-old woman and a 39-year-old man, and wounded at least five people.
• A Russian shelling attack killed a 40-year-old man working in a field in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, the State Emergency Service wrote in a post on Telegram.
• The governor of Russia’s Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, said that a Ukrainian drone attack on the Shatura Power Station, a heat and power station ​120km (75 miles) east of the Kremlin, ignited a fire. The attack cut off heating to thousands of people, before it was later restored, Vorobyov said.
• Russia’s Federal Air Navigation Service also said temporary restrictions were in place at Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport after three Ukrainian drones headed for the capital were shot down.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says an explosion on a Polish railway line that is a key route for aid deliveries to Ukraine, including weapons transfers, was an “unprecedented act of sabotage”, pledging to find those responsible.
• Oil prices fell as loading resumed at the key Russian export hub of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea after being suspended for two days following a Ukrainian attack.

Weapons

• Ukraine and France signed an agreement for Kyiv to buy up to 100 Rafale fighter jets over the next 10 years during a meeting between Zelenskyy and Macron in Paris.

Russian officials claim that a prototype of the Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate fighter could be in flight testing by early next year. Development of the single-engine aircraft, which first broke cover four years ago, is otherwise said to be ongoing with a heavy emphasis on potential export sales. There also continues to at least be plans, which currently look to be aspirational, for further variations on the design, including an uncrewed derivative.

Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) officially unveiled a Su-75, also known as the Light Tactical Aircraft (LTA), or LTS in Russian, at the 2021 Dubai Airshow. A full-scale mockup of the jet was shown at that event. Later that year, UAC said that work on an actual flying prototype was underway.

We’re “still working on development of this aircraft,” Sergey Chemezov, head of Russia’s state-run defense conglomerate Rostec, told TWZ and other outlets at this year’s Dubai Airshow on Tuesday, according to a translator. “We need some time to get the real prototype for the test flights.”

“Basically, we are almost at the stage of the testing flights, and in the near future, we will be launching it into production,” Chemezov added, again per the translator.

“I think this is the beginning of 2026,” Sergey Bogdan, Sukhoi’s chief test pilot, also said about the expected timeframe for the start of Su-75 flight testing in a separate interview with Russia’s state-run Channel One television station on Tuesday. “The aircraft is already on the shop floor, it is already being finalized, and there are already certain time plans. Therefore, with God’s help, it should take place soon enough.”

Specifications for the Su-75 that UAC has provided at this year’s Dubai Airshow say the design, at least in its present form, has a maximum takeoff weight of some 57,320 pounds (26,000 kilograms). The jet is said to be able to carry up to 16,314 pounds (7,400 kilograms) worth of air-to-air and/or air-to-ground munitions on an array of underwing hardpoints, as well as one inside three internal bays. UAC has stated the aircraft’s top speed to be between Mach 1.8 and Mach 2 with an engine in the 32,000 to 36,000-pound-thrust-class (14,500 to 16,500 kilogram-force). Size-wise, the design, as it was shown in 2021, is approximately 57 feet long and has a wingspan of 39 feet.

As TWZ has noted in the past, despite its LTA moniker, the Su-75 is really more of a middle-weight design. As a comparison, Lockheed Martin’s single-engine F-35A is 51 feet long and has a wingspan of 35 feet, and has a stated maximum takeoff weight in the “70,000 pound class.” As another reference point, Russia’s twin-engine Su-57 Felon, a heavyweight fighter design, measures 66 feet in length with a 46-foot wingspan, and has a stated maximum takeoff weight of 74,957 pounds.

Based on models and renderings that UAC has shown, the Su-75’s design has evolved since 2021. This includes the enlargement of the rear edges of both wings, with flaperons that now stretch all the way down both sides of the tail, and the extension of the wing roots at the nose end of the jet. The shaping of the wing tips, as well as parts of the nose and tail ends of the jet, has also changed. The cockpit canopy now has sawtooth edges at the front and back, as well.

There have also been changes observed to what is easily one of the Su-75’s most striking visual features, its highly angular air intake that wraps around the underside of the nose section. The mock-up that was unveiled in 2021 had a divider in the middle of the intake, which has since disappeared in renders and models of the design. The underside of the intake has also gotten flatter. It still has a diverterless supersonic inlet (DSI) style of design, the benefits of which you can read about in more detail here. Lockheed pioneered DSI technology in the 1990s, with this becoming a key aspect of the F-35’s design. It has now appeared in various forms on a number of other crewed and uncrewed aircraft, especially ones developed in China.

Overall, like the Su-57, the Su-75’s design does look to have some low-observable characteristics, but appears to be mostly focused on reducing the radar signature from the frontal hemisphere, rather than any kind of all-aspect stealth. UAC claims that Checkmate will be effective in areas “protected by air defense systems” and “in a complex jamming environment” thanks to its sensor suite, including an active electronically scanned array radar and an infrared search and track (IRST) system, and other features.

As noted, since the Su-75 was first unveiled, UAC has talked about plans for an entire family of designs based on the single-seat LTA configuration. Models of a two-seat crewed version, as well as the aforementioned uncrewed derivative, have been shown over the years.

Evidence is growing that Russia’s Su-75 Checkmate may appear not only as a single-seater, but also an unmanned wingman and a two-seat version — the latter eyed by Middle Eastern buyers. Commercial models with “Iran” and “UAE” markings hint at export plans. https://t.co/YFNxsirvHL pic.twitter.com/nZgDwlzHpr

— Mohammad Hassan Sangtarash (@MHSangtarash) November 15, 2025

There is notably a more refined model of the uncrewed Checkmate design on display at this year’s Dubai Airshow. It shows an overall configuration in line with the revisions to the single-seat design.

The Checkmate drone model also notably features what looks to be an electro-optical targeting system (EOTS) underneath its fuselage that sits inside a windowed enclosure broadly akin to the ones seen on the U.S. F-35 and Chinese J-20, as well as other designs globally. There is what appears to be another electro-optical and/or infrared sensor system with a more fixed forward field of view on the underside of the fuselage, as well. A sensor aperture is also present on top of the nose. These latter two systems look to be part of a distributed aperture system (DAS) type arrangement that could also have a more capable IRST capability. Advanced combat drones have a particular need for an array of sensors around the aircraft to provide general situational awareness, especially if they are designed for more independent autonomous operations, as well as to help spot and track targets in the air and down below.

All of this being said, much about the Checkmate effort, especially plans for follow-on variations, crewed and uncrewed, currently look to be highly aspirational.

“Generally, it takes about 10 to 15 years to create the proper aircraft,” Rostec’s Chemezov said in Dubai on Tuesday about ongoing work on the Su-75, according to the translator. “You can have a baby born in nine months, but the aircraft will take a little longer than that.”

Chemezov’s remarks here are, broadly speaking, true. As a point of comparison, the first flight of a pre-production Su-57 prototype occurred in 2010 and it took another decade or so for serial production of that design to officially kick off. At the same time, this then points to UAC reaching a high level of maturity with the baseline Su-75 design, let alone putting it into large-scale production, sometime well into the next decade, at the earliest.

When it comes to the prospective first flight of the Su-75, it should be noted that, to date, there has been no imagery or other hard evidence of a real prototype under construction or any initial testing. This is in marked contrast to how images and other details highlighting progress on other advanced Russian aircraft developments, like the S-70 Okhotnik-B uncrewed combat air vehicle (UCAV), have emerged in the past.

The pressures of the ongoing war in Ukraine make it impossible not to question whether Russia is really willing to dedicate the resources necessary for a new fighter project. Though Rostec’s Chemezov was quick to downplay any concerns in Dubai earlier this week, there are also real questions about Russia’s current ability to produce combat aircraft, crewed or uncrewed, in general, after years of Western sanctions. The Russian defense industry chief also acknowledged the additional demands that conflict has placed on Russia’s defense industry to meet the immediate needs of the country’s armed forces. Deliveries of production Su-57s to the Russian Air Force have been notably sluggish, with the Russian Air Force having received around 18 of the jets between 2022 and 2024. The service has a standing order for 76 of those aircraft, and it is unclear when it might be fulfilled in full.

Earlier this year, authorities in Belarus, a very close Russian ally, announced that they were exploring a joint partnership on the continued development of the Su-75. This could help at least defray the costs of the Checkmate program.

Since 2021, UAC has also been very heavily pitching the Su-75 as a more advanced, but also lower-cost fighter option, especially for smaller air arms in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. In the ensuing years, there have been reports of interest from a host of countries, including India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Algeria, and Vietnam. To date, however, there have been no confirmed orders.

It is worth noting here that reports earlier said Algeria had become the first export customer for the larger Su-57. UAC also said just this week that it had delivered the first two export Su-57s to an unnamed foreign customer. No visual evidence of Su-57s entering service outside Russia on any level has yet to emerge.

Competition, in general, in the international fighter market only looks set to grow, as well. China has been making particularly pronounced inroads in this space globally, and export variants or derivatives of its J-35 stealth fighter could be on the horizon. The Su-75, which again has yet to even fly, faces additional challenges posed by the fact that any nation that buys Russian weapon systems runs real risks of triggering secondary sanctions, especially from the United States.

Altogether, it very much remains to be seen when a prototype Su-75 might take to the skies for the first time, as well as when, or if, any of the broader ambitions for the Checkmate program, including the drone derivative, become a reality.

Jamie Hunter contributed to this story.

Special thanks to Michael Jerdev, who you can follow on X under the handle @MuxelAero, for sharing additional imagery from the 2025 Dubai Airshow.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Stakeholders are gathering to start negotiations based on a text that the EU believes mostly favours Russian demands.

Senior Ukrainian, European Union, United Kingdom and United States officials will soon start talks in Geneva as ambiguity and deep-seated concerns hover over the fate of the 28-point plan put forward by Washington to end the war with Russia.

At the talks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be the top representative of the administration of President Donald Trump, who has given his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy until Thursday to take the deal.

Rubio emphasised in a Sunday post on X before flying to Switzerland that the proposal was authored by the US.

“It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations,” he wrote. “It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”

The comments came in rejection of a claim made by a bipartisan group of veteran US senators, most focused on foreign policy, who told a panel discussion at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada that the plan is a Russian “wish list” and not the actual proposal offering Washington’s positions.

“This administration was not responsible for this release in its current form,” said Republican Mike Rounds from South Dakota, adding that “it looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with”.

State Department deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott called the claim “blatantly false”.

The senators earlier Saturday said the plan would only “reward aggression” by Moscow and send a message to other leaders who have threatened their neighbours.

Critics of the plan have said it heavily leans into the Kremlin’s oft-repeated demands and war narrative.

The plan would stress Ukrainian sovereignty and provide a security guarantee that it will not be attacked in the future, but also includes Ukraine ceding territory and making its army smaller.

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the proposal late Friday, saying it “could form the basis of a final peace settlement” if Washington can get Ukraine and its European allies on board.

Ukraine has been careful with its rhetoric, with Zelenskyy saying he will “work calmly” with the US and his Western allies to get through what he called “truly one of the most difficult moments in our history”.

Ukraine’s European allies are not happy with the plan, either, saying the military limitations would leave Ukraine “vulnerable to future attack”, so more talks are necessary.

France, the UK and Germany, also known as the E3, will have national security advisers at the Geneva talks.

The troubled US-led diplomatic efforts are inching forward as intense fighting continues to rage in eastern Ukraine.

Russian forces are pushing to take control of more territory in Zaporizhia and in Donetsk, part of the eastern Donbas region that is seeing fierce fighting and that Russia wants in its entirety, while also fending off Ukrainian air attacks on their oil and fuel infrastructure.

HALIFAX, Canada — Several U.S. senators said Saturday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told them that the Trump administration’s plan for ending the Russia-Ukraine war that it is pressing Kyiv to accept is a Russian “wish list” and not the actual plan.

A State Department spokesperson denied their account, calling it “blatantly false.”

The 28-point peace plan was crafted by the Trump administration and the Kremlin without Ukraine’s involvement. It acquiesces to many Russian demands that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected on dozens of occasions, including giving up large pieces of territory. Trump says he wants Ukraine to accept the plan by late next week.

At a security conference in Canada, independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said they spoke to Rubio after he reached out to some of them while on his way to Geneva for talks on the plan.

King said Rubio told them the plan “was not the administration’s plan” but a “wish list of the Russians.”

“This administration was not responsible for this release in its current form,” Rounds said. “They want to utilize it as a starting point.”

Rounds said that “it looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with.”

Rubio, who serves as both national security advisor and secretary of State, was expected to attend a meeting in Geneva on Sunday to discuss Washington’s proposal as part of a U.S. delegation, according to an American official who was not authorized to publicly discuss the U.S. participants before the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, denied the senators’ claim.

“As Secretary Rubio and the entire Administration has consistently maintained, this plan was authored by the United States, with input from both the Russians and Ukrainians,” Pigott wrote on X.

The senators earlier Saturday said the plan would only reward Moscow for its aggression and send a message to other leaders who have threatened their neighbors.

The senators’ opposition to the plan follows criticism from other U.S. lawmakers, including some Republicans, none of whom have the power to block it.

“It rewards aggression. This is pure and simple. There’s no ethical, legal, moral, political justification for Russia claiming eastern Ukraine,” King said during a panel discussion at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada.

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the proposal late Friday, saying that it “could form the basis of a final peace settlement” if the U.S. can get Ukraine and its European allies to agree.

Zelensky, in an address, did not reject the plan outright, but insisted on fair treatment while pledging to “work calmly” with Washington and other partners in what he called “truly one of the most difficult moments in our history.”

In its 17th year, about 300 people gather annually at the Halifax International Security Forum held at Halifax’s Westin hotel. The forum attracts military officials, U.S. senators, diplomats and scholars, but this year the Trump administration suspended participation of U.S. defense officials in events by think tanks, including the Halifax event.

A large number of U.S. senators made the trip this year in part because of strained relations between Canada and the United States. Trump has alienated America’s neighbor with his trade war and claims that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state. Many Canadians now refuse to travel to the U.S., and border states like Shaheen’s are seeing a dramatic drop in tourism.

“There’s real concern about that strain. That’s one reason why there’s such a big delegation is here,” the New Hampshire Democrat said. “I will continue to object to what the president is doing in terms about tariffs and his comments because they are not only detrimental to Canada and our relationship, but I think they are detrimental globally. They show a lack of respect of sovereign nations.”

Gillies writes for the Associated Press.

Russian forces continue to report advances in eastern Ukraine while the United States ramps up intensive diplomatic pressure on Kyiv and its European allies to accede to its proposed 28-point plan, which heavily leans towards the Kremlin’s demands, by Thursday.

The Russian Ministry of Defence announced on Saturday that its soldiers “liberated” the settlement of Zvanivka in Donetsk region’s Bakhmut, allegedly inflicting “significant losses” on Ukrainian forces.

It also released footage of air attacks and FPV drone attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Zaporizhia region, where Russian forces have been getting closer to the strategic town of Huliaipole using glide bombs and tactical ground incursions.

The Defence Ministry claimed that the Novoe Zaporozhye area was taken under Russian control, including a “major enemy defence node” covering an area of more than 14sq km (5sq miles).

This would add to a growing number of villages in the southeastern Ukrainian region that have been captured by Russian troops since September as they try to push back the Ukrainian military and strike energy infrastructure with another punishing winter of war approaching.

Ukrainian soldiers are also under intense attacks in the Pokrovsk area, where the fighting is believed to be fierce as the Russian military command redeploys forces to strengthen its offensive.

Regional Ukrainian authorities have reported at least one civilian death and 13 injuries over the past day as a result of Russian air attacks. The fatal strike took place in Donetsk, Governor Vadym Filashkin said.

Ukraine’s air force said Russian troops launched one Iskander-M ballistic missile from annexed Crimea and 104 drones from several areas towards multiple Ukrainian regions overnight into Saturday, of which 89 drones were downed. Most of the drones were of Iranian design, it added.

Ukrainian media said the Yany Kapu electric substation in northern Crimea was targeted by drones overnight, with footage circulating on social media showing explosions and strikes. The Russian Defence Ministry said its air force shot down six fixed-wing Ukrainian drones over Crimea early on Saturday, without confirming any hits on the ground.

EU pushes back against US plan

Ukraine’s allies have not been cheering the plan put forward by the administration of US President Donald Trump without consulting them, despite an ominous Thursday deadline set by Washington approaching.

The unilateral US plan to end the war in Ukraine “is a basis which will require additional work”, Western leaders gathered in South Africa for a G20 summit said on Saturday.

“We are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force,” said the leaders of key European countries, as well as Canada and Japan, in a joint statement.

“We are also concerned by the proposed limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces, which would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attack,” they said, adding that any implementing elements of the plan linked with the 27-member bloc and NATO would have to be undertaken with the consent of member states.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Russia’s war could only be ended with Ukraine’s “unconditional consent”.

“Wars cannot be ended by major powers over the heads of the countries affected,” he said on the sidelines of the summit.

Ukraine and its allies continue to emphasise the need for a “just and lasting peace”, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying on Saturday that real peace is based on guaranteed security and justice that secures sovereignty and territorial integrity.

But Zelenskyy approved a Ukrainian delegation to launch talks with US counterparts in Switzerland on ways of ending the war, and appointed his top aide Andriy Yermak to lead it.

Ukraine’s Security Council secretary, Rustem Umerov, who is on the negotiating team, confirmed in a post on Telegram that consultations will begin over “possible parameters” of a future deal.

“Ukraine approaches this process with a clear understanding of its interests,” he said, thanking the Trump administration for its mediation.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with the state-owned International Affairs magazine, published on Saturday, that he would not rule out the possibility of another meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has backed the US proposal.

“The search for a way forward continues,” he said, adding that Moscow and Washington continue to keep channels for dialogue open despite the lack of an agreement during a Trump-Putin meeting in August, and the indefinite suspension of another planned round in Budapest.

Putin has refused to engage in a summit that includes Zelenskyy and will be even less likely to now, given he believes Russia has the upper hand on the battlefield and the ear of the US on the diplomatic front.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is racing to contain the fallout from a high-level corruption scandal that could undermine his authority, just as his country’s soldiers and civilians face potentially their toughest winter of the war with Russia.

A week after anti-corruption investigators said they had smashed an alleged $100 million (€86 million) kickback scheme centered on state nuclear power firm Energoatom, the furor is still swirling around Zelenskiy—even as Ukraine’s troops are under severe pressure on the battlefield with Russia, and its ailing energy grid suffers nightly attacks.

Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk have resigned over the scandal, but more damaging for the Ukrainian president is what appears to be significant involvement of businessman Timur Mindich, a protégé of Zelenskiy and co-owner of the media company that Zelenskiy founded before entering politics in 2019. Apparently having been tipped off, Mindich reportedly fled Ukraine shortly before last Monday’s raids and arrests.

The Ukrainian parliament has also voted to dismiss Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk, marking the second high-level ouster in a single day as the government struggles to contain a growing corruption scandal linked to a close ally of Vladimir Zelenskyy.

It is reported by the Kiev Post that Zelenskiy could fire his influential chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, this week. A full-scale “riot” has unfolded within parliament over the vast corruption scandal that allegedly links Yermak with the multimillion-dollar kickback scheme in the country’s energy sector. The scandal has also reminded Ukrainians of how the president curbed the independence of the nation’s top EU-initiated anti-corruption agencies in July—before being forced to backtrack by street protests and international criticism—in what critics called a brazen attempt to shield associates from scrutiny.

It threatens to become the biggest political crisis of the war for Zelenskiy and comes at a time when Ukrainian troops are under severe pressure from Russia in parts of four regions—Donetsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk.

Bags of cash and a golden toilet

The West’s “dis-ease” with Ukraine and its president is no longer speculation. It’s happening in plain sight, slowly but ineluctably. The Financial Times, hardly a Kremlin mouthpiece, has published a piece titled “Bags of cash and a gold toilet: the corruption crisis engulfing Zelenskiy’s government.” Its reporters now openly state that Ukrainian elites expect even more explosive revelations from NABU investigations. And once outlets like FT put something like this in print, it usually means the groundwork has been laid behind the scenes.

That Western Europe and the United States are still approving new aid says little about confidence in Kiev. But it speaks volumes about bureaucratic inertia and the reluctance of those who profit from this war to let the tap close suddenly. Even so, you can now hear cautious whispers in Brussels asking whether it makes sense to send billions to a government whose officials seem determined to conjure up a scheme to steal the money before it arrives. These are not new revelations; rather, the surprise is that anyone actually pretends to be surprised.

The truth is easy to discern: the West knew exactly who it was dealing with from the inception. Nobody in Brussels, London, or Washington was under any delusion that Ukraine was somehow to be confused with, say, Switzerland. They knowingly entered into a political partnership with what is, and has long been, one of the most corrupt and internally unstable political systems in Europe. To pretend otherwise is to feign ignorance—pure theater.

For more than thirty years, Ukrainian statehood has rested on the same shaky foundations: competing clans, oligarchic rule, privatized security services, and a political class willing to plunder their own population. Changing leadership never went so far as to alter the underlying structure; it never happened because each leader owed his position to the same network of cash, patronage, and power.

Consider Leonid Kravchuk: under his auspices, Ukraine began its slow “Banderization,” while state assets were siphoned away and local power brokers entrenched themselves. Leonid Kuchma then perfected this system. Under his presidency, Ukraine saw questionable arms deals, the murders of journalists and opposition figures, and audiotapes revealing orders to eliminate critics. Economic sectors with predictable profits were carved up among regional clans who ruled their fiefdoms in exchange for loyalty. And a steady stream of kickbacks to Kiev.

Viktor Yushchenko’s years brought more of the same: corruption schemes around energy, political assassinations, and the continued exploitation of ordinary Ukrainians. Viktor Yanukovych and Petro Poroshenko added their own layers to this hierarchy of detritus. Zelenskiy inherited it but then accelerated it, surrounding himself with loyalists whose main qualification was their willingness to feed at the same trough as previous leaders and look the other way.

Resistance to federalism

All of these leaders shared one common denominator: resisting federalization. Ukraine is a country with a large landmass; yet, it operates through a centralized, unitary form of governance in which a legislative body or a single individual is given supreme authority and thus ultimate power over regional and local needs of the country. There are distinct disadvantages inherent in such a structure:

·        It tends to subordinate local and regional needs to that of those in power.

·        It can encourage an abuse of power, which is one reason why the United States and a dozen other nations created a federated state instead. Instead of having one form of centralized power, there is a system of checks and balances designed to provide more equality and give greater voice to those being governed.

· Greater opportunities for manipulation exist. Those in power can pursue more wealth or governing opportunities for themselves, because few ways exist to stop such activity.

·        The governing structure will protect the central body first.

·        Sub-national regions are not allowed to decide their own laws, rights, and freedoms; there is no sharing of power.

·        The few control the many. If there is a shift in policy that takes rights away from select groups or individuals, there is little, if anything, the general population can do to stop it.

·        The central authority can artificially shape the discussions of society; it can decide that their political opponents are a threat, then pass laws that allow them to be silenced or imprisoned for what they have allegedly done.

The current scandal in Ukraine is testament to the issues noted above relating to its form of governance.

A federal Ukraine would devolve power and financial control to the regions, and that is the nightmare scenario for Kiev’s elites. It would loosen their grip on revenue streams, limit their political leverage, and allow regional identities to express themselves without fear of punishment from the center. So instead of reform, those with power offered forced Ukrainization and nationalist slogans about one people, one language, and one state. It was a political survival strategy, not a nation-building project.

This is why changing presidents will solve nothing. Remove Zelenskyy, and you likely get another figure produced by the same system. Perhaps Zaluzhnyi, perhaps a recycled face from a previous era. The choreography will be identical; only the masks of the actors will change. The deeper problem is the structure of Ukrainian statehood itself. As long as Ukraine remains in its current unitary form of central authority, it will continue producing conflict, corruption, and internal instability. War is not an aberration in such a system. It is an outcome.

If the elites refuse to reform and the population has no means to compel them, then the discussion must move beyond personalities. The uncomfortable truth is that the only lasting solution may be to abandon the current model of Ukrainian statehood altogether. No cosmetic change will save a system, the very design of which fosters autocracy and corruption.

Here are the key events from day 1,367 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Saturday, November 22:

Fighting

• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said approximately 5,000 Ukrainian troops are trapped by Russian forces on the eastern bank of the Oskil River, in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian military.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its troops captured the settlements of Yampil, Stavky, Novoselivka and Maslyakivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as well as the village of Radisne in neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region.
• The Russian Defence Ministry said 33 Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed over five Russian regions, as well as Crimea and the Black Sea, overnight.
• At least eight Russian airports were forced to suspend operations during the nighttime attack, according to Russia’s aviation watchdog.
• Ukraine said its forces were holding defensive lines in the northern part of the embattled eastern city of Pokrovsk and were blocking attempts by Russian troops to advance further.
• Moscow’s forces have fought towards Pokrovsk, a logistics hub for the Ukrainian military, for months to try to capture the town, which Russian media has dubbed the “gateway” to Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region.

Peace plan

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has until this coming Thursday to approve a United States-backed peace plan with Russia, President Donald Trump has said.
• Speaking in the Oval Office after a meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Friday, Trump said: “We have a way of getting peace, or we think we have a way of getting to peace. [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy] is going to have to approve it.”
• President Zelenskyy pledged to work fast and constructively with Washington on the peace plan, but said he would not betray his country’s national interest.
• In a video statement, Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to remain united in what he described as one of the most difficult moments in their country’s history, adding that he expected more political pressure over the next week.
• Zelenskyy also said after an hour-long phone call with US Vice President JD Vance that Ukraine would work with Washington, and Europe at an advisory level, towards a peace plan.
• Zelenskyy said he then spoke with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte about the “available diplomatic options” to end his country’s war with Russia, including the “plan proposed by the American side”.

• Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow had still not officially received any peace plan from the US, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin told senior officials at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council that the US proposal could be the basis for a resolution of the conflict, but if Kyiv turned down the plan, then Russian forces would advance further.
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said any peace deal between Russia and Ukraine must ensure Kyiv’s future security, following a phone call between Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Zelenskyy.
• Starmer’s office said the leaders “underlined their support for President Trump’s drive for peace and agreed that any solution must fully involve Ukraine, preserve its sovereignty, and ensure its future security”.
• The European Union and Ukraine want peace, but they will not give in to aggression from Russia, the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said.
• “This is a very dangerous moment for all,” Kallas said. “We all want this war to end, but how it ends matters. Russia has no legal right whatsoever to any concessions from the country it invaded; ultimately, the terms of any agreement are for Ukraine to decide.”

Sanctions

• The US has issued a Russia-related general licence allowing certain transactions with the Paks II civil nuclear power plant project in Hungary, according to the Department of the Treasury.
• The licence allows transactions linked to the nuclear power plant project involving some Russian banks, including Gazprombank, VTB Bank and the Russian central bank.
• Finnish fuel station chain Teboil, which is owned by Russia’s Lukoil, has filed for corporate restructuring, news agency STT reported, becoming the first international business owned by the major Russian oil firm to say it would close down as a result of the sanctions imposed by the US on Lukoil last month.
• Lithuanian state-owned railway group LTG said it will halt shipments of oil cargoes by Lukoil to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad due to the US sanctions.
• Located on the Baltic Sea coast, Kaliningrad receives many of its supplies from Russia via rail transit through NATO member state Lithuania, but can also get direct shipments from its own country via the coast.

Corruption

• Ukraine’s government plans to appoint a new supervisory board at Energoatom, the state nuclear company at the heart of a corruption scandal, by the end of this year, Economy Minister Oleksii Sobolev said.
• Ukraine has been rocked by a scandal over an alleged $100m kickback scheme involving senior officials in the energy sector and a former business associate of Zelenskyy.

Economy

• Ukraine will sharply increase gas imports via the southern Trans-Balkan route linking it with Greece as it battles to replace supplies lost due to Russian attacks, import data from transit operators showed.
• Russian drone and missile attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure have deprived Kyiv of at least half of its own gas production in recent months, forcing it to import an additional four billion cubic metres of gas over the winter heating season to make up the difference.

Regional security

• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said sabotage acts inspired and organised by Russia are aimed at destabilising and weakening Poland and bear the hallmarks of “state terrorism”.
• Last weekend, an explosion damaged railway tracks on the Warsaw-Lublin route, which connects the Polish capital with the Ukrainian border, something Tusk described as an “unprecedented act of sabotage”.
• Nathan Gill, a British former member of the European Parliament and ex-leader of the populist Reform UK in Wales, has been jailed for more than 10 years after admitting taking about 40,000 British pounds ($52,344) in bribes to make pro-Russian speeches and statements.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after a call with US Vice President JD Vance that Ukraine agreed to work with the US and Europe towards a peace plan with Russia. Earlier he told the country it faces one of its most difficult moments as it weighs a US proposal that gives major concessions to Russia.

The United States has revealed all 28 points of its proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The plan, which has been heavily criticised as far too favourable to Russia by many observers, is in its draft stage and has yet to be made public. However, a Ukrainian official is understood to have provided the details to international media.

Here is a closer look at the points and the significance of this plan.

What are the 28 points of Trump’s proposal for Ukraine?

1. Ukraine’s sovereignty will be confirmed.

2. A comprehensive, non-aggression agreement will be concluded between Russia, Ukraine and Europe. All ambiguities of the last 30 years will be considered settled.

3. It is expected that Russia will not invade neighbouring countries and NATO will not expand further.

4. A dialogue will be held between Russia and NATO, mediated by the US, to resolve all security issues and create conditions for de-escalation to ensure global security and increase opportunities for cooperation and future economic development.

5. Ukraine will receive reliable security guarantees.

6. The size of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be limited to 600,000 personnel.

7. Ukraine agrees to enshrine in its constitution that it will not join NATO, and NATO agrees to include in its statutes a provision that Ukraine will not be admitted in the future.

8. NATO agrees not to station troops in Ukraine.

9. European fighter jets will be stationed in Poland.

10. The US security guarantee will have the following caveats:

• The US will receive compensation for the guarantee;
• If Ukraine invades Russia, it will lose the guarantee;
• If Russia invades Ukraine, in addition to a decisive coordinated military response, all global sanctions will be reinstated, recognition of the new territory and all other benefits of this deal will be revoked;
• If Ukraine launches a missile at Moscow or Saint Petersburg without cause, the security guarantee will be deemed invalid.

11. Ukraine is eligible for European Union (EU) membership and will receive short-term preferential access to the EU market while this issue is being considered.

12. A powerful global package of measures will be provided to rebuild Ukraine, including but not limited to:

• The creation of a Ukraine Development Fund to invest in fast-growing industries, including technology, data centres and artificial intelligence.
• The US will cooperate with Ukraine to jointly rebuild, develop, modernise and operate Ukraine’s gas infrastructure, including pipelines and storage facilities.
• Joint efforts to rehabilitate war-affected areas for the restoration, reconstruction and modernisation of cities and residential areas.
• Infrastructure development.
• Extraction of minerals and natural resources.
• The World Bank will develop a special financing package to accelerate these efforts.

13. Russia will be reintegrated into the global economy:

• The lifting of sanctions will be discussed and agreed upon in stages and on a case-by-case basis.
• The US will enter into a long-term economic cooperation agreement for mutual development in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centres, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic, and other mutually beneficial corporate opportunities.
• Russia will be invited to rejoin the G8.

14. Frozen funds will be used as follows:

• $100bn in frozen Russian assets will be invested in US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine;
• The US will receive 50 percent of the profits from this venture. Europe will add $100bn to increase the amount of investment available for Ukraine’s reconstruction. Frozen European funds will be unfrozen. The remainder of the frozen Russian funds will be invested in a separate US-Russian investment vehicle that will implement joint projects in specific areas. This fund will be aimed at strengthening relations and increasing common interests to create a strong incentive not to return to conflict.

15. A joint American-Russian working group on security issues will be established to promote and ensure compliance with all provisions of this agreement.

16. Russia will enshrine in law its policy of non-aggression towards Europe and Ukraine.

17. The US and Russia will agree to extend the validity of treaties on the non-proliferation and control of nuclear weapons, including the START I Treaty.

18. Ukraine agrees to be a non-nuclear state in accordance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

19. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant will be launched under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the electricity produced will be distributed equally between Russia and Ukraine, 50:50.

20. Both countries undertake to implement educational programmes in schools and society aimed at promoting understanding and tolerance of different cultures and eliminating racism and prejudice:

• Ukraine will adopt EU rules on religious tolerance and the protection of linguistic minorities.
• Both countries will agree to abolish all discriminatory measures and guarantee the rights of Ukrainian and Russian media and education.
• All Nazi ideology and activities must be rejected and prohibited.

21. Territories:

• Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk will be recognised as de facto Russian, including by the US.
• Kherson and Zaporizhia will be frozen along the line of contact, which will mean de facto recognition along the line of contact.
• Russia will relinquish other agreed territories it controls outside the five regions.
• Ukrainian forces will withdraw from the part of Donetsk oblast that they currently control, and this withdrawal zone will be considered a neutral demilitarised buffer zone, internationally recognised as territory belonging to the Russian Federation. Russian forces will not enter this demilitarised zone.

22. After agreeing on future territorial arrangements, both the Russian Federation and Ukraine undertake not to change these arrangements by force. Any security guarantees will not apply in the event of a breach of this commitment.

23. Russia will not prevent Ukraine from using the Dnipro River for commercial activities, and agreements will be reached on the free transport of grain across the Black Sea.

24. A humanitarian committee will be established to resolve outstanding issues:

• All remaining prisoners and bodies will be exchanged on an “all for all” basis.
• All civilian detainees and hostages will be returned, including children.
• A family reunification programme will be implemented.
• Measures will be taken to alleviate the suffering of the victims of the conflict.

25. Ukraine will hold elections in 100 days.

26. All parties involved in this conflict will receive full amnesty for their actions during the war and agree not to make any claims or consider any complaints in the future.

27. This agreement will be legally binding. Its implementation will be monitored and guaranteed by the Peace Council, headed by President Donald J Trump. Sanctions will be imposed for violations.

28. Once all parties agree to this memorandum, the ceasefire will take effect immediately after both sides retreat to the agreed points to begin implementation of the agreement.

How has Ukraine reacted to these proposals?

Zelenskyy met with US Army officials in Kyiv on Thursday to discuss the proposals, which have been drawn up by US and Russian officials without any input from Ukraine or its European allies.

After the meeting, Zelenskyy said in an address: “The American side presented points of a plan to end the war – their vision. I outlined our key principles. We agreed that our teams will work on the points to ensure it’s all genuine.”

Zelenskyy added, “From the first days of the war, we have upheld one very simple position: Ukraine needs peace. A real peace – one that will not be broken by a third invasion. A dignified peace – with terms that respect our independence, our sovereignty and the dignity of the Ukrainian people.”

The Ukrainian president said that he will now discuss the proposals with Ukraine’s European allies.

Does this mean Ukraine and its allies will accept the proposal?

No.

“Zelenskyy had a nuanced response – he said ‘We will work on it’,” Keir Giles, a Eurasia expert at the London political think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera.

However, he added that agreeing to the terms of the plan in its current form would be “catastrophic” for Ukraine because of the heavy concessions Kyiv is being asked to make.

While European leaders have not reacted to the 28-point plan, they have indicated that they would not accept a plan that requires Ukraine to make such concessions.

“Ukrainians want peace – a just peace that respects everyone’s sovereignty, a durable peace that can’t be called into question by future aggression,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot. “But peace cannot be a capitulation.”

For now, Ukraine’s allies are not commenting. European Council President Antonio Costa said that the EU has not yet been officially informed about the US plan, so “it makes no sense to comment” on it.

More reactions from Europe might come starting from Saturday, when Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will speak at the G20 summit.

“A 28-point plan was made public. We will discuss the situation both with European leaders and with leaders here on the sidelines of the G20,” von der Leyen said, according to UK media.

What are Russia and the US saying about this plan now?

The US has not made details of the plan public, and officials from Washington have not commented on it.

Russia has denied that there have been formal consultations between the US and Russia on a peace plan.

“Consultations are not currently under way. There are contacts, of course, but there is no process that could be called consultations,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Meanwhile, Hungarian PM and close Trump ally Viktor Orban seemed to back the plan on Friday.

In an X post, Orban wrote that Trump’s plan had “gained new momentum”.

“The American President is a persistent maverick. If he had been President at the time, the war would never have broken out. It is clear that once he sets his mind on something, he does not let it go, and he has certainly set his mind on ending the Russian-Ukrainian war,” Orban wrote.

President @realDonaldTrump‘s peace initiative has gained new momentum. A 28-point peace plan is on the table, an American negotiating delegation is in Kyiv, and expectations are high worldwide. The American President is a persistent maverick. If he had been President at the time,… pic.twitter.com/J2cagATvc5

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) November 21, 2025

What do analysts say about these proposals?

Experts said the terms of the 28-point plan and how they would be implemented are far from clear.

“The terms are unenforceable, nonsensical and vague that they cannot be enforced without months of wrangling,” Giles said.

For instance, he said, point 9 states that European fighter jets will be stationed in Poland. However, it is unclear what “European” or “fighter jets” mean.

Giles said “European” could mean the European Union or European countries. “‘Fighter jets’ is a militarily meaningless term, which provides plenty of room for argument,” he added.

How would the US be ‘compensated’ for security guarantees?

It is unclear what security guarantees the US is offering Ukraine. Further details of these have not been released.

Point 10 states that the “US will receive compensation for the guarantee”. While it is unclear what the specific compensation would be, experts suggest that point 14 may shed some light on this.

Point 14 of the plan states that $100bn in frozen Russian assets plus $100bn from Europe would be used for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

The plan further states that the US will receive 50 percent of the profits from the reconstruction of Ukraine. It is not specified how these profits would be generated.

The plan also states that remaining Russian funds would go into a joint US-Russia investment vehicle for projects to build ties and deter future conflict, again with little detail.

Giles said this likely refers to about $300bn in Russian Central Bank assets, which have been frozen by the US and European countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In October this year, EU leaders suggested a “reparations plan” under which it would use frozen Russian assets to lend Ukraine $164bn to buy European weapons, and for reconstruction.

Giles said that the point about Russian frozen assets was likely deliberately added by negotiators from Moscow because “Russia has already written off frozen assets abroad, and now is dangling that as a carrot in front of the US”.

Giles added that, according to earlier plans, however, “those funds were supposed to rebuild Ukraine”.

However, now we don’t know whether the reconstruction will be of a “free Ukraine or Russian efforts of Russification in occupied Ukraine”, he said.

Would the proposal give Russia amnesty for war crimes?

Point 26 of the plan states that all parties involved in the conflict will receive “full amnesty for their actions during the war”.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

The US cannot unilaterally grant amnesty to an individual convicted of war crimes by an international organisation.

“Writing off the war, pretending it never happened, rolling back sanctions and ignoring war crimes is just one of the elements of this draft list where the US is assuming the cooperation of the rest of the world,” Giles said.

He added that a large number of countries across the world strongly believe in international law, and are likely to push back on this point.

“If a negotiation like this were to be enforced, then it is the US endorsing the seizure of territory through open arms aggression, and it will be encouragement to other aggressors around the world that they have the US blessing,” Giles warned.

What territory would Ukraine have to concede?

The plan says that Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk would be considered Russian territory.

Donetsk and Luhansk are collectively called the Donbas region.

Crimea was seized by Russia from Ukraine in 2014 and remains a matter of dispute.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, overall, Ukraine still controls 14.5 percent of the territory in the Donbas, including parts of Donetsk around the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

Russia also controls 75 percent of Zaporizhia and Kherson in southern Ukraine, bordering the Black Sea. The plan says that the current battle lines will be frozen in these regions.

How would Russia be brought back into the international fold?

Parts of the proposal aim to bring Russia out of the isolation imposed on it by the Western world since it started the Ukraine war.

Point 12 states that Russia will be invited to rejoin the G8.

The G8 – currently the G7 – was an unofficial forum for the leaders of eight major industrialised nations: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US.

Russia was part of the G8 but was ejected following the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The plan also mentions the establishment of a US-Russian investment vehicle that would implement joint projects in specific areas. However, further details about this have not been revealed.

The plan also mentions the formation of a joint US-Russian working group on security issues to ensure compliance with the plan.

Will the proposal end the war in Ukraine?

Analysts are doubtful. “This agreement is not going anywhere – similar to the previous ones,” Giles said.

He called it “another iteration of the merry-go-round that we’ve been on many times before”.

He said he believes the plan will receive pushback from Ukraine and Europe, which will want to negotiate changes.

More details are emerging from a 28-point peace plan backed by United States President Donald Trump aimed at ending Russia’s four-year war on Ukraine, with several media outlets and officials confirming that the plan, which has yet to be officially published, appears to favour Russia.

Details of the plan also come after US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told the UN Security Council on Thursday afternoon that the US had offered “generous terms for Russia, including sanctions relief”.

“The United States has invested at the highest levels, the president of the United States personally, to end this war,” Waltz told the council.

The AFP news agency reported on Friday that the plan, which the US views as a “working document”, says that “Crimea, Lugansk [Luhansk] and Donetsk will be recognised as de facto Russian, including by the United States”.

This corresponds with an earlier report from US media outlet Axios.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency also reported on Friday that the plan would require Ukraine to surrender the Donbas, which includes the Luhansk and Donetsk regions that Ukraine currently partly holds.

Under the draft, Moscow would hold all the eastern Donbas region, even though approximately 14 percent still remains in Ukrainian hands, AP reported.

AFP and AP also confirmed Axios’s earlier report that the plan would require Ukraine to limit the size of its military.

According to AFP, the plan specifically says that the army would be limited to 600,000 personnel. Ukraine is estimated to currently have just under 900,000 active duty military staff.

‘A neutral demilitarised buffer zone’

Ukrainian member of parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko shared a document showing what appeared to be the full 28-point peace plan with his 223,000 followers on the Telegram messaging app, late on Thursday, Ukraine time.

Russia’s state TASS news agency also reported on details included in the document shared by Goncharenko, saying it “purportedly represents a Ukrainian translation of 28 points of the new American plan for a peace settlement in Ukraine”.

New details included in the document shared by Goncharenko include that “Ukraine has the right to EU [European Union] membership” and that the “United States will work with Ukraine to jointly restore, develop, modernise, and operate Ukraine’s gas infrastructure, including pipelines and storage facilities”.

The document also states that Ukraine’s “Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant will be commissioned under [UN nuclear agency] IAEA supervision, and the electricity generated will be shared equally between Russia and Ukraine in a 50:50 ratio”.

The text of the document shared by Goncharenko also states that “Ukrainian forces withdraw from the part of the Donetsk region that they currently control, and this withdrawal zone will be considered a neutral demilitarised buffer zone”.

Handing over territory to Russia would be deeply unpopular in Ukraine and would also be illegal under Ukraine’s constitution. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out such a possibility.

No NATO membership for Ukraine

The AFP news agency also reported that, according to the plan, European fighter jets would be based in Poland specifically to protect Ukraine.

However, Kyiv would have to concede that no NATO troops would be stationed in Ukraine and that it would agree never to join the military alliance.

Additional details reported by AP include that Russia would commit to making no future attacks on Ukraine, something the White House views as a concession by Moscow.

In addition, $100bn in frozen Russian assets would be dedicated to rebuilding Ukraine, AP reported.

Russia would also be re-admitted to the G8 group of nations and be integrated back into the global economy under the plan, according to AFP.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that both Ukrainians and Russians have had input into the plan, which she said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US special envoy Steve Witkoff have been quietly working on for a month.