Ukraine signals support for US-backed peace deal with Russia, White House says further talks required

Ukraine has signalled support for the framework of a peace deal with Russia but stressed that sensitive issues need to be fixed at a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump.

Ukraine’s message hinted that an intense diplomatic push by the US Administration could be yielding some fruit but any optimism could be short-lived, especially as Russia stressed it would not let any deal stray too far from its own objectives.

US President Donald Trump also declared a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia is “very close” while speaking at the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning at the White House.

“I think we are getting very close to a deal on Ukraine. We’re going to get there,” he said.

US and Ukrainian negotiators held talks on the latest US-backed peace plan in Geneva on Sunday.

US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll then met on Monday and Tuesday with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, a spokesperson for Mr Driscoll said.

US and Ukrainian officials have been trying to narrow the gaps between them, with Ukraine wary of being strong-armed into accepting a deal largely on the Kremlin’s terms, including territorial concessions.

“Ukraine - after Geneva - supports the framework’s essence, and some of the most sensitive issues remain as points for the discussion between Presidents,” a Ukrainian official said.

Mr Zelensky could visit the United States in the next few days to finalise a deal with Mr Trump, Kyiv’s national security chief Rustem Umerov said, although no such trip was confirmed from the US side.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that over the past week the US had made “tremendous progress towards a peace deal by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the table”.

She added: “There are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States.”

Oil prices extended an earlier decline after reports of Ukraine potentially agreeing to a war-ending deal.

Underlining the high stakes for Ukraine, its capital Kyiv was hit by a barrage of missiles and hundreds of drones overnight in a Russian strike that killed at least seven people and again disrupted power and heating systems.

Residents were sheltering underground wearing winter jackets, some in tents.

The sudden US peace push has raised the pressure on Ukraine and Mr Zelensky, who is at his most vulnerable since the start of the war after a corruption scandal result in two of his ministers being dismissed, and as Russia makes battlefield gains.

Mr Zelensky said on Monday the latest peace plan incorporated “correct” points after talks in Geneva.

“The sensitive issues, the most delicate points, I will discuss with President Trump,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

Mr Zelensky said the process of producing a final document would be difficult.

Russia’s unrelenting attacks on Ukraine have left many sceptical about how peace can be achieved soon.

“There was a very loud explosion, our windows were falling apart, we got dressed and ran out,” said Nadiia Horodko, a 39-year-old accountant, after a residential building was struck in Kyiv overnight.

“There was horror, everything was already burning here, and a woman was screaming from the eighth floor, ‘Save the child, the child is on fire!’”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said an amended peace plan must reflect the “spirit and letter” of an understanding reached between Mr Putin and Mr Trump at their Alaska summit.

“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation (for Russia),” Mr Lavrov warned.

A group of countries supporting Ukraine, which is known as the coalition of the willing and includes the United Kingdom and France, was also set to hold a virtual meeting on Tuesday.

“It’s an initiative that goes in the right direction: peace. However, there are aspects of that plan that deserve to be discussed, negotiated, improved,” French President Emmanuel Macron said regarding the US-proposed plan.

“We want peace but we don’t want a peace that would be a capitulation.”