Ukraine sent revised peace plan to Washington amid talks

Ukraine sent a revised peace plan to Washington as President Donald Trump held a call with European leaders, according to a person familiar, as both sides scramble to keep efforts on track to end Russia’s invasion.

The war-torn country’s latest submission was sent as Trump held a separate discussion with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday. That phone call was outlined in statements from the German and U.K. governments and confirmed by the White House.

“We discussed Ukraine in pretty strong words, and we’ll see what happens. I mean, we’re waiting to hear answers before we progress,” Trump told reporters at the White House later on Wednesday.

“I think it’s time to get that war settled, and I think it’s a war that can be settled,” Trump added, repeating that thousands were dying each week. “We don’t want to be wasting time. Sometimes you have to let people fight it out, and sometimes you don’t.”

Weeks of talks have produced a document that’s more palatable to Kyiv, but several sticking points including over territory and security guarantees continue to stymie a deal. While Ukraine is ready to discuss peace along the front lines, a ceasefire should precede any negotiations, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said Wednesday at the Aspen Security Forum in Washington.

“Intensive work on the peace plan is continuing and will continue in the coming days,” according to a readout of the call published by the British government. Leaders “agreed that this was a critical moment – for Ukraine, its people and for shared security across the Euro-Atlantic region,” it said.

In recent weeks the U.S. has made a renewed attempt to broker a deal between Moscow and Kyiv that would end the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion, which is approaching the four-year mark. European nations have expressed concerns about pressure being applied by the Trump administration on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree to an outcome largely on Russia’s terms.

Part of that pressure has come from Trump, who on Wednesday questioned when Ukraine would hold fresh elections. Zelenskyy has said he’s willing to hold a vote if the U.S. and allies can help guarantee election security and if the country’s laws could be altered to allow for such a poll.

European leaders, who met in London earlier this week, had tasked their national security advisers with producing further proposals to send to the U.S. based on negotiations between Trump’s envoys and Ukrainian officials.Three documents are currently being discussed between the countries. One is an overall framework to end the war, the second concerns security guarantees for Kyiv and the third focuses on Ukraine’s reconstruction.

On Monday, Zelenskyy told Bloomberg that negotiators remained divided over seven “sensitive issues,” including security guarantees for the war-battered nation and control over eastern regions of Ukraine. The Ukrainian leader also said in a social media post that he’d spoken with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink about reconstruction issues.

“There are many ideas that, with the right approach, could succeed in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in the post. “We have also updated our reflections on the 20 points of the framework document for ending the war. It is overall security that will determine economic security and underpin safe business environment.”

It remains to be seen whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin is willing to agree to a deal to end the war. Following talks with Trump’s envoys in Moscow last week, the Kremlin said that some proposals on the table were acceptable, but it rejected others.

Putin demands Ukraine cede areas of the eastern Donetsk region that its troops failed to take by force in nearly four years of war. Zelenskyy and European allies have repeatedly said a ceasefire must be imposed along the current front line, rejecting a demand for the Ukrainian army to withdraw.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on Tuesday that the parties were “quite close” to a peace agreement.

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With assistance from Michael Nienaber, Mario Parker, Patrick Donahue and Piotr Skolimowski.

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