The United States and Ukraine say they have developed an “updated and refined” peace framework aimed at ending the war with Russia, revising an earlier Trump administration proposal that Kyiv and European partners viewed as overly favourable to Moscow.
Info via Reuters.
The joint announcement came after high-level talks in Geneva led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Both sides described the discussions as “highly productive” and said negotiations would continue in the coming days. Officials did not disclose details on core unresolved issues, including how to guarantee Ukraine’s long-term security against future Russian aggression.
Rubio told reporters that negotiators had made significant progress in narrowing outstanding questions in the 28-point peace plan put forward by President Donald Trump, though key issues — including NATO’s future role — remained under debate.
European officials joined the talks after drafting their own revisions, which push back against US-proposed limits on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces and reject pre-determined territorial concessions. The European version would allow Ukraine a larger military and proposes that any land-swap discussions begin from current front-line positions, not from assumptions about what territory should be considered Russian.
Trump has given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy until Thursday to respond to the US plan, which reportedly includes territorial cessions, military caps, and renouncing NATO ambitions — terms many Ukrainians view as unacceptable after nearly four years of fighting. Trump has insisted his proposal is not final.
Rubio signalled that the US hopes a deal could be reached by Thursday but conceded that negotiations may extend beyond that timeline. US and Ukrainian officials are exploring a possible Zelenskiy visit to the United States, potentially as soon as this week, to discuss the most sensitive elements of the plan, though no meeting date has been confirmed.
---
A revived peace framework could temporarily ease geopolitical risk premia, but unresolved territorial terms and NATO questions mean markets will remain sensitive to headline volatility around the negotiations.
