Following tense talks in Geneva this weekend, Kyiv and Washington agreed on a new 19-point peace framework, but left core questions of territory and long-term security architecture for US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to decide later.
The emerging deal matters far beyond Ukraine because it will test whether a war launched by outright aggression can be frozen on terms that respect Kyiv's sovereignty, or whether great-power pressure can still force smaller states into accepting faits accomplis that reward force over law.
Talks in Geneva shift from near breakdown to "positive" mood
The Geneva negotiations on Sunday began in a sour atmosphere, with US officials angered by leaks of an earlier 28-point proposal that many in Kyiv saw as tilted toward Russian demands and close to a dictated peace. According to a detailed account in the Financial Times, Ukrainian deputy foreign minister Sergiy Kyslytsya described the first hours as "hanging by a hair."
Ukraine's delegation was led by Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, and National Security and Defense Council secretary Rustem Umerov, backed by Kyslytsya, military officers and intelligence officials. On the US side, Secretary of State Marco Rubio headed a team that included Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, Trump's Russia envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose presence initially surprised Ukrainian officials.
After nearly two hours of damage-control talks, both sides moved to the US mission and began a methodical, point-by-point review of the peace outline, with Kyslytsya later saying negotiators "developed a solid body of convergence" and that almost all Ukrainian suggestions were taken on board.
What the new 19-point plan changes—and what it avoids
A new "updated and revised framework document" now replaces the earlier proposal that Kyiv had rejected, according to a joint US-Ukrainian statement cited in a BBC analysis.
Key changes in the emerging 19-point framework:
Security guarantees: Plan now refers to security guarantees for Ukraine, with some European leaders discussing Article 5-style protection obliging the US to defend Ukraine if Russia invades again
NATO membership: Automatic veto on future Ukrainian NATO membership has been removed
Military size: Proposed cap on the size of Ukraine's armed forces has been dropped
Western troops: No permanent Western troop stations in Ukraine, but stops short of a total ban on Western deployments
Territory: No "free" handover of the remaining parts of Donbas to Russia; aims to restore occupied areas exclusively through diplomatic means—a stance Zelenskyy has previously accepted
War crimes: Earlier idea of a full amnesty for war crimes has been deleted
It remains unclear how many of the European proposals made it into the text, but Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz has described the deal as "significantly modified" in a positive way.
However, the most politically explosive issues—above all, the status of occupied territories and the future relationship between NATO, Russia and the US—were "placed in brackets." In diplomatic practice, that signals they are acknowledged but unresolved, reserved for heads-of-state decisions rather than negotiators in Geneva.
Trump's Thanksgiving deadline collides with Ukraine's red lines
Trump has pushed hard for a rapid deal, warning that Kyiv faces unspecified consequences if it does not sign onto an agreement around the US Thanksgiving deadline. For Ukraine, which wants peace but "not at any cost," that pressure collides with domestic constraints and public opinion hardened by years of full-scale war.
Under Ukraine's constitution, any decision to cede territory would require a nationwide referendum, limiting what Zelenskyy's envoys can accept in a hotel conference room abroad. Politically, anything seen as ratifying Russian land-grabs risks shattering Ukrainian society's wartime consensus and undercutting support for the president at home.
Before the US talks, Ukraine held discussions in Geneva with European national security advisers from Germany, France, the UK, Italy and EU institutions, according to the FT, underscoring that any eventual deal would also have to fit with broader Western positions and security guarantees, not just bilateral US-Russian preferences.
Russia still "offstage" as leaders weigh next steps
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia has not seen the new draft. Washington must still decide when and how to present the 19-point framework to Moscow. It remains an open question whether Russia will engage with the revised text that reflects Kyiv's red lines.
Next, both delegations will brief Trump and Zelenskyy on the Geneva outcome, with Rubio saying there had been "tremendous progress."
The updated peace plan framework has not yet been made public, but Ukraine's deputy foreign minister Sergiy Kyslytsya told the FT it sets out a new 19-point plan with "very little left" from the original draft.
