Returning to Kyiv on Thursday after a multi-day trip abroad, the Ukrainian president spoke during the day with an American military delegation led by Army Minister Daniel Driscoll. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the discussions revolved around a draft new peace plan, pushed by the American government. This first proposal consisting of 28 points, copies of which were leaked to the press and social media, contained long-standing Russian demands, such as recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Donbass, limiting the size of the Ukrainian army (to 600,000 people), Ukraine’s refusal to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which would be enshrined in the Ukrainian Constitution. So many actions were deemed unacceptable by the Ukrainian side during the previous series of peace talks. Echoing the Kremlin’s rhetoric justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the twentieth proposal further states as much “any Nazi ideology or activity must be rejected and prohibited”.
Cautiously, the President of Ukraine committed to discussions so that his country could get an agreement “peace with dignity”. “ Our teams from Ukraine and America will work on the points of the plan to end the war. We are ready to work constructively, honestly and quickly”, he said in a statement. Volodymyr Zelensky also assured that he would discuss “in the next few days” with his American counterpart, Donald Trump.
The reactivation of the negotiating phase that once again excludes European countries comes at a very difficult time for Ukraine. Soldiers are fighting on the front lines while the entire country suffers from prolonged power outages due to systematic bombing of energy infrastructure by Russian forces. At the same time, the presidential administration was experiencing its most serious political crisis since the start of the invasion. The scandal was sparked on Monday, November 10, when Ukrainian investigators accused several people close to the presidency of embezzling around 100 million dollars (or around 86 million euros) from the country’s energy sector. The fact that the group’s actions delayed the construction of fortifications to protect energy installations from Russian bombing came as a shock to a society that had suffered the consequences of nearly four years of war.
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