US, Ukrainian and European officials meet in Geneva for talks on US peace plan

The US-backed plan requires Ukraine to, among other things, cede territory, limit its military in the future and renounce its NATO ambitions. As outlined the proposal is not far removed from what Russia has been insisting on since before its military incursion into Ukraine. In response European leaders are trying to draft a better deal for Kyiv ahead the Thursday deadline.

Senior officials from the US, Ukraine and the national security advisers of France, Britain and Germany have gathered in Geneva Switzerland where they are discussing a draft US plan to end the war in Ukraine. US President Donald Trump has given Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy until Thursday to approve the 28-point plan, which calls on Ukraine to give up part of its territory, accept limitations on its military and renounce its ambitions to join NATO. And while President Trump has criticized the Ukrainian leadership on social media for failing to express any gratitude for the American efforts the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, insists that Ukraine's borders cannot be changed by force: “We have agreed on the main elements necessary for a just and lasting peace, and Ukraine's sovereignty. And let me highlight three of them; First borders cannot be changed by force. Second, as a sovereign nation there cannot be limitations on Ukraine's armed forces that would leave the country vulnerable to future attack, and thereby also undermining European security. Third, the centrality of the European Union in securing peace for Ukraine must be fully reflected. Ukraine must have the freedom and sovereign right to choose its own destiny. They have chosen a European destiny. It starts with the country's reconstruction, its integration into our single market and our defense industrial base, and ultimately joining our union.”

European leaders are now scrambling to come out with their counter-proposal to President Trump's peace plan, something they claim they will do before President Trump’s Thursday deadline.

Meanwhile, after participating in the final panel of a three-day international conference on the future of Europe in Vienna with Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković commented on the US peace plan: “I can say that what we have heard roughly matches our initial analysis of the document, and that is the exceptionally problematic aspect that three regions are being handed over, de facto allowing Russia to emerge from this aggression with Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk as new Russian territories. I think this segment with be the most demanding for Ukraine in the coming days, as the plan is modified or adapted. Because, it is definitely in contradiction to the Ukrainian Constitution, and I would say, directly breaches the principle of territorial integrity, which is something anyone of us in that position would have in mind.”

Source: HRT