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Reuters has seen the text of a set of proposals to end Russia’s war in Ukraine that were presented to European officials by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff at talks in Paris on April 17.
Witkoff was in Moscow on Friday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, just over a day after U.S. President Donald Trump publicly implored Putin to stop bombing Ukraine after several civilians were killed in Kyiv airstrikes.
But at other points early in his second term as president, Trump has directed his ire at Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy as the White House seeks to end what the U.S. president has characterized as unnecessary casualties in a war that has entered its fourth year.
Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, berated the leader of Ukraine in a public spat at the Oval Office in late February, while the president chided Zelenskyy earlier this week for suggesting Ukraine would not surrender Crimea to Russia as a part of any ceasefire plan.
As the U.S. attempts to push Ukraine toward a ceasefire, Russia appears to be heading in the opposite direction. CBC’s Terence McKenna examines the latest moves and why some think Vladimir Putin might be trying to manipulate Donald Trump through his billionaire real estate buddy.
Moscow-backed rebels seized the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea in 2014, eight years before launching the invasion of Ukraine more broadly.
“Crimea will stay with Russia,” Trump said in an interview published Friday by Time magazine. “And Zelenskyy understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time.”
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing champion who is a political rival of Zelenskyy, also suggested Ukraine may need to temporarily cede land as part of a peace deal with Russia, Britain’s BBC reported on Friday.
“One of the scenarios is to give up territory. It’s not fair. But for the peace, temporary peace, maybe it can be a solution, temporary,” Klitschko was quoted by the BBC as saying in an interview.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko told the BBC that Ukraine may need to temporarily cede land as part of a peace deal with Russia. ‘One of the scenarios is…. to give up territory. It’s not fair. But for the peace, temporary peace, maybe it can be a solution — temporary,’ Klitschko said.
Some of the proposals presented to the European officials last week would not be a surprise, given previous public statements by U.S. officials. U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in early February suggested in a speech Ukraine would have to abandon its pursuit of NATO membership.
The text of the document presented in Paris is published below in full with no changes:
Russia-Ukraine Deal Framework
Transmit verbally Overview: These terms represent the final offer from the United States to both sides.
Ceasefire
- Permanent ceasefire.
- Both sides immediately engage in technical implementation negotiations Ukraine security guarantee.
- Ukraine receives robust security guarantee.
- Guarantor states will be an ad hoc grouping of European states plus willing non-European states.
- Ukraine will not seek to join NATO.
- Ukraine may pursue EU membership Territory.
- U.S. provides de jure recognition of Russian control of Crimea.
- U.S. provides de facto recognition of Russian control of Luhansk.
- U.S. provides de facto recognition of Russian-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson.
- Ukraine regains territory in Kharkiv Oblast.
- Ukraine regains control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant through U.S. control and administration of the plant, with electricity distributed to both sides, and also the Kakhovka Dam.
- Ukraine enjoys unhindered passage on Dnieper River and control of the Kinburn Spit Economics.
- United States and Ukraine will implement economic co-operation/minerals agreement.
- Ukraine to be fully reconstructed and compensated financially.
- Sanctions on Russia resulting from this conflict since 2014 will be removed.
- U.S.-Russian economic co-operation on energy and other industrial sectors.
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