Senior Pentagon officials have arrived in Ukraine to “discuss efforts to end the war” with Russia, the US military said.
The team, led by US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in kyiv on Thursday when he returns from a trip to Turkey.
Reports began to emerge on Wednesday that the United States and Russia had prepared a new peace plan that contained significant concessions from Ukraine. Neither Washington nor Moscow have officially confirmed the plan.
Hours earlier, at least 25 people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack on the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, officials there said. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In kyiv, Driscoll is joined by U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, top U.S. Army Europe commander Gen. Chris Donahue, and Army Maj. Michael Weimer.
“Secretary Driscoll and his team arrived in kyiv this morning on behalf of the administration on a fact-finding mission to meet with Ukrainian officials and discuss efforts to end the war,” Army spokesman Col. David Butler said in a statement.
Driscoll was photographed meeting with Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday.
Driscoll and General George are the highest-ranking US military officials to hold talks in the Ukrainian capital since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Ukrainian authorities have not publicly commented on what issues are being discussed with the Americans.
However, a Ukrainian official told CBS, the BBC’s US media partner, that the focus would be on the military situation on the ground, as well as plans for a possible ceasefire.
The official, who was not identified, said: “Presidents Zelensky and Trump have already agreed to stop the conflict along existing compromise lines, and there are agreements on providing security guarantees.”
It comes as several media outlets report that the United States and Russia have privately drawn up proposals on how to end the war.
Citing people familiar with the matter, Axios, the Financial Times and Reuters reported that the plans call for kyiv to give up some territories and weapons, as well as significantly reduce the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev are believed to have been involved in working on the 28-point peace plan.
The BBC has asked the White House and a representative for Witkoff for comment.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to downplay the reports.
“In this case, we have no additional innovations to what we call ‘the spirit of Anchorage,'” he told Russian state media on Wednesday, referring to the August summit between Putin and Trump in the US state of Alaska.
Agreements reached during the one-day meeting have not been made public.
President Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Russia.
kyiv and its Western allies, including the United States, have been calling for an immediate ceasefire along the vast frontline, but Moscow has dismissed it, repeating demands that Ukraine says amount to its de facto capitulation.
Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow’s preconditions for a peace deal – including the cession of territory, strict restrictions on the size of Ukraine’s army and the country’s neutrality – had not changed since Putin laid them out two months before the full-scale invasion.
