Russia to seek changes to peace plan seen as starting point

Volodymyr Verbianyi, Bloomberg News on Dec 24, 2025

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Russia will seek key changes to the latest U.S. peace plan to end its war on Ukraine, including more restrictions on Kyiv’s military, according to a person close to the Kremlin.

Moscow regards the 20-point plan worked out between Ukraine and the U.S. as a starting point for further negotiations, as it lacks provisions important for Russia and fails to answer many questions, the person said, asking not to identified discussing sensitive policy.

While Russia views the current document as a fairly typical Ukrainian plan, it will study it with a cool head, the person said.

Vladimir Putin hasn’t yet commented on the latest proposals for ending Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, which have been worked out in weeks of negotiations involving U.S., Ukrainian and Russian officials. Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who met with the U.S. team in Florida over the weekend, has briefed the Russian president on the results and Moscow will continue contacts on its position with Washington soon, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters late Tuesday that differences remain between Kyiv and Washington on territorial issues and on management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that Russia seized early in the 2022 full-scale invasion. Still, he offered an upbeat assessment, saying the negotiations had “moved significantly closer to finalizing the documents.”

While Russia hasn’t endorsed the latest version of the 20-point plan, it’s unwilling to risk alienating U.S. President Donald Trump by rejecting it entirely. Trump said this week that talks were going “okay” and that there was a chance to conclude a deal soon, though U.S. hopes for an agreement by Christmas have foundered.

There are no plans at present for Putin to speak with Trump, Peskov said, according to the Interfax news service.

Russia’s concerns include guarantees against future eastward expansion by the NATO military alliance and on Ukraine’s neutral status if it joins the European Union, according to the person close to the Kremlin.

The plan also lacks limits sought by Russia on Kyiv’s postwar armed forces and types of weapons, the person said, and doesn’t provide clear assurances on the status of the Russian language in Ukraine. Russia also wants clarity on the issue of removing sanctions and on hundreds of billions of dollars of frozen Russian state assets in the West.

Russia wants Ukraine to give up land in eastern Donetsk that Putin’s troops have failed to capture during almost four years of fighting. Ukraine rejects that demand, fearing that surrendering the heavily-fortified area would leave it vulnerable to a new Russian attack.

Ukraine aims to persuade Trump to propose that Russia halt the war along the current contact line, Zelenskyy said.

Russia is currently suggesting it could pull back its troops from the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolayiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, according to the Ukrainian president. But Moscow also wants Ukraine to withdraw from the area it still controls in Donetsk, which the U.S. believes should be designated as a “free economic” or “demilitarized” zone, Zelenskyy said.

“We are in a situation where the Russians want us to withdraw from the Donetsk region, while the Americans are trying to find a way for this to be ‘not a withdrawal’ – because we are against withdrawal,” Zelenskyy said. Giving up any land would be difficult for the government in Kyiv to implement as it would violate Ukrainian law and require a referendum.

As part of the compromise, Zelenskyy pledged to hold presidential elections “as soon as possible” after a ceasefire is reached. The truce would take effect on the day the peace accord is signed, with monitoring by international mediators.

Ukraine would be allowed to retain a peacetime military of as many as 800,000 troops and any violation of the ceasefire by Russia would trigger U.S. security guarantees, Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine has won U.S. backing for a clear deadline to join the E.U. and a commitment for hundreds of billions of dollars in postwar reconstruction, as well as a new pact with Russia to safeguard its river and sea trade, according to Zelenskyy.

The timing of Ukraine’s accession to the E.U. is currently a bilateral discussion between the U.S. and Ukraine, without confirmation from Europe, he said.