Ukraine allies to hold talks on White House peace plan at G20

Ukraine’s allies will seek to “strengthen” the US plan to end the war with Russia when they meet at the G20 summit in South Africa, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said.

The summit begins a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Ukraine was facing “one of the most difficult moments in our history” due to pressure to accept the plan, the leaked details of which have been considered favorable to Moscow.

Zelensky held telephone talks with Sir Keir and the leaders of France and Germany on Friday. Afterwards, the prime minister said Ukraine’s “friends and partners” remained committed to ensuring a “lasting peace once and for all.”

Neither US President Donald Trump nor Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the G20.

The widely leaked US peace plan includes proposals that kyiv had previously ruled out, including ceding eastern areas it currently controls.

Washington has been pressuring kyiv to agree and sent senior Pentagon officials to Ukraine earlier this week to discuss the proposals.

But there is nervousness in Europe over what has been perceived as a set of terms heavily biased in favor of Moscow. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called the prospect of its adoption a “very dangerous moment.”

According to the Reuters news agency, he told reporters: “We all want this war to end, but how it ends matters. Russia has no legal right to any concessions from the country it invaded; ultimately the terms of any deal are decided by Ukraine.”

Ahead of the G20 talks, Sir Keir said the assembled leaders “will discuss the current proposal on the table and, in support of President Trump’s push for peace, we will look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations.”

He continued: “Not a day has passed in this war that Ukraine has not called on Russia to end its illegal invasion, turn back its tanks and lay down its weapons.

“Ukraine has been willing to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage.

“That is why we must all work together, with both the United States and Ukraine, to ensure a just and lasting peace once and for all.”

As part of the White House plan, Ukraine would be forced to reduce the size of its military and commit not to join the NATO military alliance, a long-standing Kremlin demand.

Trump warned Friday that Ukraine would lose more territory to Russia “in a short period of time” and that Zelensky “is going to have to approve” the plan.

The US president said he had given Ukraine until Thursday to agree to the plan – Thanksgiving in America – which he described as an “appropriate” deadline.

Russian troops have been advancing slowly along the vast front line, despite reported heavy losses.

Ukraine relies on deliveries of advanced American-made weaponry to arm its forces, including air defense systems.

kyiv has also relied on intelligence provided by Washington since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

During a meeting with his security cabinet on Friday, Putin confirmed that the United States had presented its proposed peace plan and said it could be the “basis” for a deal, although he added that detailed talks on its terms had not yet been held in the Kremlin.

He said Russia was willing to “show flexibility” but was also willing to keep fighting.

In a 10-minute speech outside the presidential office in kyiv, Zelensky warned that Ukraine would face “a lot of pressure… to weaken us, to divide us.”

“We will not make loud statements,” he continued, “we will work calmly with the United States and all partners…offering alternatives” to the proposed peace plan.

Zelensky has had to strike a careful balance between kyiv’s interests and maintaining cordial ties with Trump, with whom he had a public falling out in the White House earlier this year and who has at times appeared frustrated by the lack of progress in peace talks.

His reaction to the US plan has been measured, although he admitted on Friday that Ukraine “could face a very difficult choice: lose dignity or risk losing a key partner.”

The White House has rejected claims that Ukraine was excluded from drafting the proposal.

An anonymous US official told CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner, that the plan was drawn up “immediately” following talks with Ukraine’s top security official, Rustem Umerov, who agreed with most of it.

The leaked draft proposes the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the part of the eastern Donetsk region that they currently control, giving Russia de facto control of Donetsk, as well as the neighboring Luhansk region and the southern Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.

Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

kyiv would receive “reliable security guarantees,” the plan says, although no details have been given.

The document says it is “expected” that Russia will not invade its neighbors and that NATO will not expand further.

The draft also suggests that Russia will be “reintegrated into the global economy,” by lifting sanctions and inviting Russia to rejoin the G7 group of the world’s most powerful countries, making it the G8 again.