European officials welcome progress on US proposal to end Russia-Ukraine war
European officials said they were comforted by the outcome of discussions on US peace proposals for Ukraine.
The plans have been viewed as tilted in Russia’s favour, but officials did not disclose details of the weekend talks and warned of a long road to peace in Ukraine.
After Sunday’s meeting in Switzerland between US and Ukrainian officials, Finnish President Alexander Stubb wrote: “The negotiations were a step forward, but there are still major issues which remain to be resolved.”
US President Donald Trump suggested that the process could be moving in the right direction.
“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 in a post on the Truth Social platform.
The talks in Geneva covered a 28-point peace plan presented last week by the United States that triggered alarm in Kyiv and European capitals by heavily favouring Moscow’s demands and goals following its invasion of its neighbour nearly four years ago.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the “interim result” of the talks, saying the US proposal “has now been modified in significant parts”.
He cautioned, however: “It was possible to clear up some questions, but we also know that there won’t be peace in Ukraine overnight.”
The plan pressed Ukraine to consent to handing over some of its territory to Moscow and slashing the size of its army, leaving it vulnerable.
The proposal also sought Europe’s agreement that Ukraine will never be admitted into the Nato military alliance, though the alliance has previously said Ukraine is on an “irreversible path” to membership.
The surprise emergence of the peace plan coincided with a bleak period for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with the war less than three months shy of its fourth anniversary.
It is under severe strain on the front line against Russia’s bigger army, it is short of money, and Mr Zelensky is trying to defuse a major corruption scandal that has tainted his government.
The Geneva meeting offered some hope for Kyiv.
“Diplomacy has been reinvigorated, and that’s good. Very good,” Mr Zelensky said late on Sunday.
It wasn’t clear whether the talks would continue on Monday.
Russian officials still haven’t seen the revised peace plan text since amendments were made over the weekend, a Kremlin spokesperson said.
Dmitry Peskov added that there was currently no plan in place for US and Russian delegations to meet this week, but that the Russian side remained “open for such contacts”.
Mr Merz, the German leader, said Moscow must now become engaged in the process.
“The next step must be that Russia must come to the table,” he said in Luanda, 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 chief diplomats of Germany, Finland, France, the UK, Italy and Poland consulted with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha on Monday on further steps toward ending the war, according to the German Foreign Office.
German Foreign Minister Johannes Wadephul said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who directed the talks in Switzerland, “made decisive positive contributions to ensuring that this plan can be accepted by both the European and Ukrainian sides”.
“I would like to say that all issues concerning Europe or Nato have been removed from this plan, which is a decisive success that we achieved yesterday,” he told public broadcaster Deutschlandradio.
Mr Rubio said the talks were “very worthwhile” and constituted the most productive day in “a very long time”.
“I feel very optimistic that we can get something done,” he said.
Turkey is also hoping to build bridges between Russia and Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was to speak by phone with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan later on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Mr Peskov said.
Mr Erdogan’s office said that the two leaders would discuss a deal from 2022, which allowed Ukraine to safely ship exports of grain via the Black Sea.
Moscow refused to extend the deal a year later, saying agreements to ease Russian exports of food and fertiliser hadn’t been honoured.
Meanwhile, the grim reality of war still cast a pall over Ukraine as Russian forces kept up their deadly and devastating strikes on civilian areas.
Russian drones hit residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, overnight, killing four people and wounding 13, including two children, authorities said.
Eight residential buildings, an educational facility and power lines were damaged in the attack, according to the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.
Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office published photos showing homes on fire, rubble scattered across backyards and firefighters and war crimes prosecutors working on site.
Ukraine’s air force says Russia fired 162 strike and decoy drones over the country overnight.
Russia also resumed its nighttime drone attacks on Ukraine’s civilian and port infrastructure close to Romania’s border, the Nato member’s Defence Ministry said.
Romania scrambled two Eurofighter Typhoon jets and two F-16s in response to drones near its border, the ministry said.
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