Above photo: Reuters.
Russia’s foreign minister condemned the US media leak of a draft peace agreement.
Referring to it as ‘hype’ and ‘megaphone diplomacy’.
The Ukrainian government has “agreed to a peace deal” to end the nearly three-year war between Moscow and Kiev, a US official told CBS News on 25 November.
“The Ukrainians have agreed to the peace deal. There are some minor details to be sorted out, but they have agreed to a peace deal,” the US official said.
Ukrainian National Security Advisor Rustem Umerov also said that an understanding has been reached, expressing optimism that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky would travel to the US by the end of November in order to finalize the deal.
Negotiators reached “a common understanding on the core terms” of a deal discussed among US, European, and Ukrainian officials in Switzerland over the weekend.
“We now count on the support of our European partners in our further steps. We look forward to organizing a visit of Ukraine’s president to the US at the earliest suitable date in November to complete final steps and make a deal with [US] President [Donald] Trump,” Umerov added.
According to CBS, this comes after US–Russia negotiations in Moscow. US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll met with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, two anonymous diplomatic sources told the news channel.
“We remain very optimistic. Secretary Driscoll is optimistic. Hopefully, we’ll get feedback from the Russians soon. This is moving quick,” the US official went on to tell CBS News.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has slammed the leak of information from US media.
Lavrov said that while Russia “appreciates the US position, which is taking the initiative in resolving the Ukrainian conflict,” the country “operates professionally, not leaking information before formal agreements are reached.”
“Russia expects the US to inform it of the results of consultations with Ukraine and Europe in the near future,” he added.
“It was leaked on purpose to fan the media hype. Those who direct this hype certainly want to undermine Donald Trump’s efforts, to distort the plan according to their wishes,” Lavrov added.
The foreign minister also said Moscow did not receive any official messages from Washington on the matter. Russia will confidentially discuss whatever US proposal is submitted and will do so without “resorting to megaphone diplomacy,” he went on to say.
The CBS report came the same day as a phone call between Zelensky and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The conversation preceded a virtual meeting of the Coalition of the Willing scheduled for Tuesday.
“We have coordinated our positions and the priority issues for discussion, as well as some of our next steps and contacts,” Starmer said.
According to an Axios report released on Monday, Zelensky has been presented with a 28-point US plan. The report says the Ukrainian president was briefed on the plan by US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s former advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, during a phone call.
It adds that efforts to draft the 28-point plan began last month.
A draft of the plan seen by Axios last week calls on Ukraine to give up additional territory in the east, introduce a cap on the size of its army, and agree never to join NATO.
“The plan is not easy for Ukraine, but the US believes the war must end and that if it doesn’t, Ukraine is likely to lose even more territory,” a White House official told the outlet.
The 28-point US plan is reportedly inspired by Trump’s post-war plan for Gaza. It focuses on “peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, security in Europe, and future US relations with Russia and Ukraine,” Axios wrote.
Since the start of the war in February 2022, Russian forces have successfully occupied much of, but not all of, the territory of four eastern Ukrainian oblasts: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
In September 2022, Russia passed legislation formally annexing them.
Ukraine is demanding that Russia withdraw from these territories entirely, including areas with pro-Russian Ukrainian populations.
