"Ongoing process" First version of the peace plan off the table - how will Putin react?
The American push for an end to the war in Ukraine has shocked the Europeans. Now renegotiations have begun. The talks are beginning to bear fruit.
24.11.2025, 15:42
24.11.2025, 16:42
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- In the renegotiations on the US peace plan in Geneva, all references to the EU and NATO have been removed and are to be negotiated separately.
- There have apparently also been changes to the question of the use of frozen Russian assets.
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sees "tremendous progress" and has relativized the deadline that Trump had set for accepting the plan.
- This is the biggest sticking point in the negotiations for Kiev.
Europe has scored a success in the negotiations on the US peace plan for the war in Ukraine. According to German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, all issues concerning NATO and the EU were removed from the draft during the talks in Geneva.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously said that EU and NATO issues should be dealt with separately. He said that the opinions of the allies should be sought. According to the news agency DPA, the current plan is shorter than the old one.
Ukraine also expressed its satisfaction with this stage of the consultations.
Moscow wants nothing to do with it
There was initially no official reaction from Moscow to the state of negotiations. According to the state news agency Tass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia did not yet have any official information about what had been worked out in Geneva.
A meeting between the Russian and US delegations is not yet planned for this week. US President Donald Trump's original 28-point plan was described by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a basis for achieving peace.
As at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, the heads of state and government of the European Union are also using the EU-Africa summit in Angola as an opportunity to reach agreement on the issue of Ukraine. EU Council President António Costa spoke on the phone in Luanda with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to obtain first-hand information.
US Secretary of State guarantees Europeans a say
One of the Europeans' key demands, which France's head of state Emmanuel Macron also made at the crisis meetings on the sidelines of the G20 summit in South Africa, now appears to have been met.
Rubio assured that the opinions of the allies would be sought when it came to their interests. "This is a decisive success that we achieved yesterday," said Wadephul on Deutschlandfunk radio.
This concerns, for example, the use of the Russian central bank's money, which is fixed in the EU, as well as Ukraine's possible membership of NATO or the EU.
First version of the US peace plan off the table
Negotiators from Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, the EU, Ukraine and the United States discussed the US plan in Geneva on Sunday. Critics saw it as extremely advantageous for Russia and almost as a capitulation by Ukraine.
The negotiating teams left Geneva after the talks.
Ukraine and the USA agreed to continue their intensive work on the proposal "in the coming days" and to continue to coordinate closely with their European partners, according to a joint statement issued in Kiev and Washington. Final decisions on the new plan would be made by Trump and Zelensky.
Rubio: "Enormous progress" achieved
Rubio spoke of the "enormous progress" that had been made. The outstanding points were "not insurmountable", he said - without giving details. The whole thing was an "ongoing process".
He went so far as to soften the deadline for Ukraine to agree to the peace plan. Although he - like President Trump - would like to see a conclusion by Thursday, "whether Thursday, Friday, Wednesday or Monday next week" is of secondary importance in view of the deaths in Ukraine.
Wadephul also did not want to comment on details. However, it was clear that nothing could be "agreed over the heads of the Europeans and Ukraine". It must be ensured that Ukraine's sovereignty is preserved. It would decide for itself when and what concessions it would make.
The biggest sticking point
One of the most problematic points was the question of possible territorial cessions, said Wadepuhl. The current course of the front must be the starting point for negotiations and not their end point. However, it was also clear to him that Russia, as the cause of the war, "must essentially bear the consequences".
According to the USA, Ukraine is satisfied with the revised version of the peace plan and sees its most important interests reflected in the document.
According to the representatives from Kiev, the draft includes "short- and long-term, credible and enforceable mechanisms to protect Ukrainian security", the White House announced. Kiev did not initially comment on this.
