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KYIV: US and Ukrainian officials said on Monday (Nov 24) they had drafted a refined framework for ending the war with Russia, after talks in Geneva produced a revised version of a US plan that Kyiv and its European allies had criticised as too favourable to Moscow.

In a joint statement, Washington and Kyiv said the updated approach was the result of Sunday’s discussions in Switzerland, although neither side released specifics. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his delegation was returning to Kyiv to report on the outcome.

US President Donald Trump hinted at movement in the talks, writing on Truth Social that “something good just may be happening”. 

Later at the White House, spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said a “couple of points of disagreement” remained but added that Washington was confident they could be resolved. She said no meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy had yet been scheduled.

Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that the new draft includes “correct” elements, but that sensitive topics would require direct discussion with Trump.

US PLAN LEFT EUROPE SCRAMBLING

Since mid-2025, US policy on the war has shifted sharply, raising concerns among Kyiv and European capitals about Washington’s intentions. Trump’s surprise Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin heightened fears that the United States might accept Russian demands, but it ultimately produced stronger US pressure on Moscow.

The latest 28-point US proposal again caught many off guard. It would require Ukraine to cede more territory, accept limits on its armed forces and abandon its long-held ambition of joining NATO. Kyiv and its European allies say those terms amount to capitulation.

European governments produced a counter-proposal, seen by Reuters, that would freeze fighting along current front lines, defer territorial discussions and grant Ukraine a US security guarantee similar to NATO’s mutual defence commitments. Russia rejected the European version outright.

The US push comes as Zelenskyy faces his most challenging domestic moment of the war, following a corruption scandal that forced the dismissal of two ministers and amid Russian gains along parts of the front.

Public scepticism remains high. “Trump’s special plan is, in general, a capitulation for Ukraine,” said Anzhelika Yurkevych, a 62-year-old civil servant. “The Ukrainian people will not agree.”

Zelenskyy said Kyiv continued to seek compromises “that will strengthen but not weaken us” as he spoke via video link to a separate meeting of Ukraine’s partners in Sweden.

Sources familiar with the talks said Zelenskyy could travel to the United States as soon as this week to discuss the plan’s most sensitive points with Trump.

Melinda Haring, a non-resident senior fellow at US think tank Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, said the original 28-point plan "smells like a Russian document" and "has a lot of very bad and dangerous ideas in it".

"US Vice President JD Vance says he wants to ensure that Russia cannot attack Ukraine again. If that's actually the intention of the document, you couldn't write a worse document," she told �鶹's Asia First programme.

One of the points was to cap Ukraine's armed forces to 600,000 personnel, down from about 800,000 currently.

"The document is riddled with problems, but what we saw over the weekend is a more narrow version. The US and the Ukrainians whittled the document down to under 20 points," Haring noted.

"But now, the pressure is really on Donald Trump to keep pushing this. I'm not sure that the Russians will agree to the document as it stands."

DRONE STRIKE HITS KHARKIV

Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, was struck by what officials called a massive drone attack on Sunday, killing four people. Emergency teams were seen digging through rubble as smoke drifted through the neighbourhood.

“There was a family, there were children,” said Ihor Klymenko, commander of a Red Cross emergency team. “The children are alive, thank God. The man is alive. The woman died.”

Across the border, Russia said it had downed 10 Ukrainian drones aimed at Moscow. A Ukrainian drone strike on Sunday had briefly cut power to thousands near the Russian capital, in a rare reversal of the blackouts that Russian attacks routinely inflict on Ukrainian cities.

European Union leaders also discussed Ukraine on the sidelines of an EU–African Union summit in Luanda. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Trump had shown openness to a jointly developed peace plan, calling Sunday’s talks an “interim result”.

“But we also know,” Merz said, “peace in Ukraine will not happen overnight”.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said any agreement must not weaken Kyiv or Europe. “No one wants to discourage Americans and President Trump from having the United States on our side in this process,” he added.