Why Russia is likely to reject US-led peace plan 2.0

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has presented a 20-point peace plan formulated by Ukrainian and American officials, which is a significant departure from a plan drawn up in October.

- IVAN NECHEPURENKO

The previous plan would have forced Ukraine to cede territory and rule out NATO membership.

Zelensky presented the new proposal as a reasonable compromise to the plan drawn up by Kirill Dmitriev, the special envoy of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Steve Witkoff, President Trump's special envoy, and unveiled in November. The new blueprint includes the security guarantees Kyiv wants to prevent future Russian aggression, as well as plans to rebuild the war-ravaged nation. But a Kremlin emboldened by Moscow's advances on the battlefield and restrained by the difficulty of selling the new plan to the Russian public as a victory is unlikely to accept it.

"This is an absolute mockery," Aleksei Naumov, an analyst of international affairs based in Moscow, said of the new Ukrainian plan in a post on the Telegram messaging app. "The idea is clear: Pitch this to the Americans as a 'compromise,' and then blame Russia for its failure."

What Are Russia's main sticking points?

Over the past two years, Mr. Putin has consistently insisted on two main points: Ukraine must withdraw its forces from the rest of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and NATO membership must be ruled out.