By Idrees Ali and Tom Balmforth
WASHINGTON/KYIV (Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday Ukraine was ready to advance a U.S.-backed framework for ending the war with Russia and discuss disputed points with U.S. President Donald Trump in talks he said should include European allies.
In a speech to what are known as the coalition of the willing allies, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Zelenskiy urged European leaders to hash out a framework for deploying a “reassurance force” to Ukraine and to keep backing Kyiv for as long as Moscow showed no inclination to end its war.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have been trying to narrow the gaps between them over Trump’s plan to end Europe’s deadliest and most devastating conflict since World War Two, with Ukraine wary of being strong-armed into accepting a deal largely on Russian terms, including territorial concessions.
“We firmly believe security decisions about Ukraine must include Ukraine, security decisions about Europe must include Europe … Because when something is decided behind the back of a country or its people, there is always a high risk it simply won’t work,” Zelenskiy said, according to his speech text.
“That framework is on the table, and we’re ready to move forward together – with the USA, with the personal engagement of President Trump,” he added.
A Ukrainian diplomat cautioned that territorial concessions remained a major sticking point, meaning a final deal was far from certain despite accords on various specific points. “These are really tough questions for us,” the diplomat said.
Underlining the high stakes for Ukraine, its capital Kyiv was hit by a barrage of missiles and hundreds of drones overnight in a Russian attack that killed seven people and again disrupted power and heating systems. Residents were sheltering underground wearing winter jackets, some in tents.
ZELENSKIY MAY RETURN TO U.S.
Trump told a White House event on Tuesday he thought a deal on Ukraine was getting close but gave no other details, saying only: “We’re going to get there.”
Zelenskiy could visit the U.S. in the next few days to finalise a deal with Trump, Kyiv’s national security chief Rustem Umerov said earlier on Tuesday, though there was no immediate confirmation of such a trip from the U.S. side.
Kyiv’s message hinted that an intense diplomatic push by the Trump administration could be yielding some fruit but any optimism could be short-lived, as Russia stressed it would not let any deal stray too far from its own maximum objectives.
U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators held talks on the latest U.S.-backed peace plan in Geneva on Sunday. U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll then met on Monday and Tuesday with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, a spokesperson for Driscoll said.
A Ukrainian official said Kyiv “supports the framework’s essence, and some of the most sensitive issues remain as points for the discussion between presidents.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that over the past week, the U.S. had made “tremendous progress toward a peace deal by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the table.” She added: “There are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States.”
Oil prices extended an earlier decline after reports of Ukraine potentially agreeing to a war-ending deal.
ZELENSKIY: WILL DISCUSS SENSITIVE ISSUES WITH TRUMP
U.S. policy towards the war has zigzagged in recent months.
A hastily arranged summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August raised worries in Kyiv and European capitals that the Trump administration might accept many Russian demands, though the meeting ultimately resulted in more U.S. pressure on Russia.
The 28-point plan that emerged last week caught many in the U.S. government, Kyiv and Europe alike off guard and prompted fresh concerns that the Trump administration might be willing to push Ukraine to sign a peace deal heavily tilted toward Moscow.
The plan would require Kyiv to yield territory beyond the almost 20% of Ukraine that Russia has captured since its February 2022 full-scale invasion, as well as accept curbs on its military and bar it from ever joining NATO – conditions Kyiv has long rejected as tantamount to surrender.
The sudden push has cranked up the pressure on Ukraine and Zelenskiy, who is now at his most vulnerable since the start of the war after a corruption scandal saw two of his ministers dismissed, and as Russia makes battlefield gains.
Zelenskiy could struggle to get Ukrainians to swallow a deal viewed as selling out their interests.
Zelenskiy said on Monday the process of producing a final accord would be hard. Russia’s unrelenting attacks on Ukraine have left many sceptical about how peace can be achieved soon.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said an amended peace plan must reflect the “spirit and letter” of an understanding reached between Putin and Trump at their Alaska summit.
“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 by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart, Devika Nair, Tom Balmforth, Pavel Polityuk, Alessandro Parodi, Michel Rose, Luiza Ilie, Sergiy Karazy, Gram Slattery; writing by Matthias Williams and Mark Heinrich; editing by Frances Kerry and Rod Nickel)
