The Daily Populous Wednesday December 24th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by inews.co.uk and submitted by theipaper

The Ukrainian President says latest proposals agreed with US have 'significantly brought most of the positions closer together'

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The US and Ukraine have agreed on an updated peace deal and shared details of the 20-point plan with Russia, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Ukrainian President said the latest proposals have “significantly brought most of the positions closer together”, but there were still details to iron out over territory.

Zelensky called the plan “the main framework for ending the war“, with key questions on the Russian-occupied eastern Donetsk region and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to be resolved “at the leaders’ level”.

The proposal offers Russia the possible withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the east that it wants, with US negotiators also looking at establishing a demilitarised zone or a “free economic zone” in the eastern Donbas region, which mainly comprises the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

The updated deal has been shared with Russian negotiators and a response from Vladimir Putin is expected on Wednesday, Zelensky added.

He said negotiations over the Donbas were “the most difficult point”.

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky during a tense Oval Office meeting in February (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP)

So far, Russia has taken over most of Luhansk and around 70 per cent of Donetsk. Moscow has insisted that Kyiv gives up the remaining territory in Donbas that it has not captured, but Ukraine has refused to accept this.

“There are two options,” Zelensky said, “either the war continues, or something will have to be decided regarding all potential economic zones.”

The US has proposed a compromise of transforming the areas into a free economic zone or demilitarised zone, but Ukraine has insisted that any arrangement must hinge on a referendum allowing citizens to decide their own fate.

Zelensky says the area should be demilitarised with an international force present to ensure stability.

The other sticking point is how the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian occupation, will be managed.

The US has proposed that the enterprise will be jointly operated by Ukraine, the US and Russia, which each side having an equal stake.

Zelensky has countered with a proposal of joint ownership between the US and Ukraine, in which the Americans can choose to distribute their share to Russia.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff have been central to negotiations towards peace in Ukraine (Photo: Lisi Niesner)

The latest 20-point plan is an update of the 28-point proposal agreed upon between US envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russians several weeks ago, which was deemed to be weighted towards the Kremlin.

Since then, the US has held talks with Ukrainian and European leaders in Berlin about a potential peace deal. Negotiations then moved to Miami last weekend, where US president Donald Trump’s team spoke separately to to representatives from Russia, Ukraine and Europe.

It remains to be seen what Moscow will make of the peace plan, but Putin is unlikely to be keen on the compromise for Donetsk. Earlier this month, he threatened that Russia would seize control of eastern Ukraine if troops did not withdraw.

There is no reference to barring Ukraine from joining Nato in the current draft, which was in the original 28-point plan and something Putin has frequently demanded.

The damaged Kia Sorento lies at the scene where Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was killed in a car bomb (Photo: Anastasia Barashkova/Reuters)

It comes after three people were killed in a car bombing in Moscow, just days after another car bomb killed a high-ranking Russian general not far away.

The two traffic police officers were approaching a “suspicious individual” when an explosive device detonated, Investigate Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.

The two officers, as well as another person standing nearby, died from their injuries.

The incident took place in the same area of southern Moscow where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, was killed by a car bomb on Monday morning.

Investigators said Ukraine may have been behind the attack, which was the third such killing of a senior military officer in just over a year.

whosear3 on December 24th, 2025 at 17:55 UTC »

Wittcoff finally met Zelinski. Now this peace plan is the best. He will meet next with the Russians, and they will have the best peace plan. And so on. Don't expect much.

69yoloswagmaster on December 24th, 2025 at 12:03 UTC »

Its a realistic plan for Ukraine but i doubt putin would accept any peace deal that doesn’t neutralize the Ukrainian army and involves foreign troops on the border. Putin loves frozen conflicts its part of his playbook, he would only accept a plan that would allow him to do it again in a couple years.

theipaper on December 24th, 2025 at 11:29 UTC »

The US and Ukraine have agreed on a peace deal, and shared details of the latest 20-point plan with Russia, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Ukrainian President said the latest proposals have “significantly brought most of the positions closer together”, but there were still details to iron out over the Donetsk region and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

He called the plan “the main framework for ending the war”, with key questions on territory to be resolved “at the leaders’ level”.

The proposal offers Russia the possible withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the east that it wants, with US negotiators also looking at establishing a demilitarised zone or a “free economic zone” in the eastern Donbas region.

The updated deal has been shared with Russian negotiators and a response from Vladimir Putin is expected on Wednesday, Zelensky added.

He said negotiations over the Donbas – a region encompassing the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – are “the most difficult point”.

So far, Russia has taken over most of Luhansk and around 70 per cent of Donetsk. Moscow has insisted that Kyiv gives up the remaining territory in Donbas that it has not captured, but Ukraine has refused to accept this.

The US has proposed a compromise of transforming the areas into a free economic zone or demilitarised zone, but Ukraine has insisted that any arrangement must hinge on a referendum allowing citizens to decide their own fate.

Zelensky has also insisted that the area is demilitarised and an international force is present to ensure stability.

The other sticking point is how the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian occupation, will be managed.

The US has proposed that the enterprise will be jointly operated by Ukraine, the US and Russia, which each side having an equal stake.

But Zelensky has countered with a proposal of joint ownership between the US and Ukraine, in which the Americans can choose to distribute their share to Russia.