20-point plan, agreed on by US and Ukrainian negotiators, being reviewed by Moscow
\nKYIV
\nUkraine won some concessions in the latest version of a US-led draft plan to end the Russian invasion, revealed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, though key questions remain over territory and whether Moscow could accept the new terms.
\nThe 20-point plan, agreed on by US and Ukrainian negotiators, was being reviewed by Moscow, but the Kremlin is unlikely to abandon its hardline territorial demands for full Ukrainian withdrawal from the east.
\nZelensky conceded there are some points in the document that he does not like, but Kyiv has succeeded in removing immediate requirements for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk region or that land seized by Moscow\u2019s army would be recognised as Russian.
\nNevertheless, the Ukrainian leader still indicated the proposal would pave the way for Kyiv to pull some troops back, including from the 20 percent of the Donetsk region that it controls, where demilitarised zones would be established.
\nIt also got rid of demands that Kyiv must legally renounce its bid for Nato membership.
\nZelensky presented the plan during a two-hour briefing with journalists, reading from a highlighted and annotated version.
\n\u201cIn the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, the line of troop deployment as of the date of this agreement is de facto recognised as the line of contact,\u201d Zelensky said of the latest version.
\n\u201cA working group will convene to determine the redeployment of forces necessary to end the conflict, as well as to define the parameters of potential future special economic zones,\u201d he added.
\nThis appears to suggest the plan opens the way for, but delays, options that Ukraine was previously reluctant to consider \u2014 a withdrawal of troops and the creation of demilitarised zones.
\n\u201cWe are in a situation where the Russians want us to withdraw from the Donetsk region, while the Americans are trying to find a way,\u201d Zelensky said.
\n\u201cThey are looking for a demilitarised zone or a free economic zone, meaning a format that could satisfy both sides,\u201d he continued.
\nNato, land, nuclear plant
\nUS President Trump is trying to broker an to end the four-year war, triggered by Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion.
\nTens of thousands have been killed, eastern Ukraine decimated, and millions forced to flee their homes.
\nRussian troops are advancing on the front and hammering cities and Ukraine\u2019s energy grid with nightly missile and drone barrages. The defence ministry on Wednesday said it had captured another Ukrainian settlement in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
\nMoscow in 2022 claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian regions \u2014 Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, and Zaporizhzhia \u2014 in addition to the Crimean peninsula, which it seized in 2014.
\nIn Moscow, President Vladimir Putin has shown no willingness to compromise, doubling down on his hardline demands for a sweeping Ukrainian withdrawal and a string of political concessions that Kyiv and its European backers have previously cast as capitulation.
\nAny plan that involves Ukraine pulling back its troops would need to pass a referendum in Ukraine, Zelensky said.
\n\u201cA free economic zone. If we are discussing this, then we need to go to a referendum,\u201d Zelensky said, referring to plans to designate areas Ukraine pulls out from as a demilitarised free trade zone.
\nOn Nato, Zelensky said: \u201cIt is the choice of Nato members whether to have Ukraine or not. Our choice has been made. We moved away from the proposed changes to the Constitution of Ukraine that would have prohibited Ukraine from joining Nato.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
20-point plan, agreed on by US and Ukrainian negotiators, being reviewed by Moscow KYIV Ukraine won some concessions in the latest version of a US-led draft plan to end the Russian invasion, revealed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, though key questions remain over territory and whether Moscow could accept the new terms. The 20-point plan, agreed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91503,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91480\/revisions\/91503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}