Ukraine, Russia war: Volodymyr Zelensky presents US with revised 20-point peace framework

Ukraine has presented the United States with a revised 20-point framework to end its war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky says, adding that the issue of ceding territory remains a major sticking point in negotiations.

Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Mr Zelensky said the US is offering as a compromise to create a “free economic zone” in the Ukraine-controlled parts of the eastern Donbas which Russia has demanded that Ukraine cede.

“They see it as Ukrainian troops withdrawing from the Donetsk region, and the compromise is supposedly that Russian troops will not enter this part of Donetsk region. They do not know who will govern this territory,” he said, adding that Russia is referring to it as a “demilitarised zone”.

However, Mr Zelensky said there was still no common understanding on the land issue and that Ukrainians should vote on any territorial concessions in a referendum.

Ukraine, in the latest round of frantic shuttle diplomacy, is seeking to balance out a 28-point US-backed plan whose original version was seen as too favourable to Russia.

Mr Zelensky added that Russia’s withdrawal from slivers of land in the northeastern Kharkiv and Sumy regions as well as the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region was part of the discussion.

The contact lines in the partially occupied southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson would be frozen where they are, he added.

The US also offered potential joint governance of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest such facility in Europe and currently occupied by Russia, which wants to keep the station under its own control.

Ukraine is under US pressure to quickly secure a deal with Russia, which has stepped up advances on the frontline in recent months and renewed massive attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Mr Zelensky, following reports that US President Donald Trump had set a Christmas deadline for Ukraine to accept the peace proposal, said the US had not given Ukraine a strict timeline.

“I think they really wanted, or perhaps still want, to have a complete understanding of where we stand with this agreement by Christmas,” he said.

Apart from a 20-point framework, the general peace plan will include separate documents on security guarantees, to prevent Russia from attacking again, and on rebuilding Ukraine’s war-hit cities.

Ukraine, which says it has been let down by previous security assurances from allies, insists that guarantees are ratified in parliament.

Mr Zelensky said on Thursday he had an “in-depth” discussion on the matter with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Ukraine also wants to maintain a strong army after fighting ends and Mr Zelensky said the latest draft proposal puts it at 800,000 - higher than in an initial framework, according to reports.

Ukrainian aerial drones struck a Russian oil platform in the Caspian Sea for the first time on Thursday, halting production at the facility owned by Lukoil , according to an official from Ukraine’s Security Service.

At least four drone strikes hit the platform on the Filanovsky rig, forcing extraction to stop at more than 20 oil and gas wells, the official said.

It was unclear where the Ukrainian military launched the attack from but the Caspian Sea is more than 700km from Ukraine’s nearest border.

The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces said on Thursday that they had also hit two chemical plants in Russia’s Novgorod and Smolensk regions.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the United Kingdom needed to disclose what one of its soldier killed in Ukraine on Tuesday was really doing there.

The UK Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday that the soldier, Lance Corporal George Hooley, died in Ukraine while observing Ukrainian forces test a new defensive capability away from the frontline.

Ms Zakharova said the government should not deceive its citizens by claiming that UK soldiers sent to Ukraine were mere advisers or instructors, accusing UK forces of helping Ukraine “carry out terrorist attacks and extremist tasks”.