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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has given details of an updated peace plan that offers Russia the potential withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the east, as Moscow has demanded.
Providing details of the 20-point plan agreed over the weekend by U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators in Florida, Zelensky said the Russians would respond on Wednesday once the Americans spoke to them.
Calling the plan “the main framework for ending the war,” Zelensky said it proposed security guarantees from the United States, NATO and Europeans for a coordinated military response if Russia invades Ukraine again.
On the key issue of Ukraine’s eastern Donbass, Zelensky said a “free economic zone” was a potential option.
He told reporters that because Ukraine was opposed to withdrawal, U.S. negotiators were seeking to establish a demilitarized zone or free economic zone.
“There are two options,” Zelensky said: “either the war continues, or something will have to be decided regarding all potential economic zones.”
The 20-point plan is seen as an update to an original 28-point document, agreed to several weeks ago by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff with the Russians, which was widely seen as heavily biased toward the Kremlin’s demands.
The Russians have insisted that Ukraine withdraw almost a quarter of its own territory in the eastern Donetsk region in exchange for a peace deal. The rest is already under Russian occupation.
Sensitive issues, including territorial issues, should be resolved “at the leadership level,” but the new project would provide Ukraine with strong security guarantees and a military force of 800,000, Zelensky said.
Much of the updated plan resembles what emerged from recent discussions in Berlin involving U.S. negotiators Witkoff and Jared Kushner with Ukrainian and European leaders. The scene then shifted to Miami last weekend, where US President Donald Trump’s team spoke separately with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev and then with Ukrainian and European officials.
There now appear to be many more details on the territorial issue, although it is clear that the Ukrainian side has failed to reach a consensus.
If Ukraine was prepared to withdraw its heavy forces five, 10 or 40 km into the 25% of Donetsk it still holds to create a “free economic zone”, making it virtually demilitarized, then Zelensky explained that Russia should do the same “accordingly five, 10 or 40 km”.
He stressed that an economic zone should also be created around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant currently occupied by Russia and that Russian troops should withdraw from four other Ukrainian regions: Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Kharkiv.
