Ukraine-US peace plan may be ready to show to Russia within days, says Zelenskyy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said proposals negotiated with US officials on a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine could soon be finalised, with US envoys then presenting them to the Kremlin.

- Shaun Walker Kyiv Peter Beaumont

After two days of talks in Berlin, US officials said on Monday they had resolved “90%” of the problematic issues between Russia and Ukraine, but despite the positive spin it is not clear that an end to the war is any closer, particularly as the Russian side is absent from the current talks.

The Ukrainian president said if Russia rejected the proposals it would then be a “fair request” to ask the US for more weapons and further sanctions against Moscow.

In a series of comments to journalists via WhatsApp in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Zelenskyy said US Congress was expected to vote on the offered security guarantees for Ukraine in order to make them legally binding. He said the US would also hold consultations with the Russians, followed by high-level meetings that could take place this weekend.

“We are counting on five documents. Some of them concern security guarantees: legally binding, that is, voted on and approved by the US Congress,” he said, adding that the guarantees would “mirror article 5” of Nato.