TOP diplomats from Kyiv are heading to the US to continue talks on a peace deal that could end Russia’s bloody war in Ukraine.
The delegation, which is being led by the country’s Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, hopes to hammer out the details of Donald Trump’s proposed peace draft.
Diplomats from Kyiv will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Sunday.
They will hope to negotiate for a fair peace deal that does not lean heavily towards Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected that the results of previous meetings with the US in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out”.
Kyiv is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal – all while Zelensky finds himself in the most difficult political and military situation.
Sunday’s meeting will also notably be the first without Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday following a corruption row.
Yermak had been the leading negotiator – and enforcer – for Kyiv since the start of the war in 2022.
A political blowback from a $100 million energy sector corruption scandal has seen two ministers and, now, the president’s right-hand man, ousted.
The Geneva meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counteroffer to proposals laid out in Trump’s initial 28-point peace plan.
It heavily favoured Russia, prompting Zelensky to quickly engage with American negotiators.
Kyiv said it was seeking changes to the draft that was criticised for being in Moscow‘s favour for accepting a range of Russia‘s hardline demands.
European leaders, fearing for their own future amid Russian aggression, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.
Early this week, Umerov said the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva”.
It indicated that Ukraine was on common ground with the US about the revised, now 19-point peace plan with the US negotiators.
But it left the toughest issues for Trump and Zelensky to decide later.
The original Kremlin-backed plan ceded Crimea and the Donbas region to Moscow, as well as parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – with the US officially recognising them as part of the Russian territory.
While the 19-point plan scraps any limits on the size of Ukraine’s army, it does not address control of territory or whether Ukraine can join Nato – two of the biggest red lines for both sides.
Zelensky has said Ukraine is in one of the most difficult moments in its history, but promised his people in a dramatic address last week that he would not betray the country.
But reports suggest that the plan to recognise territory taken by Moscow through force is likely to go ahead despite concern from Ukraine‘s allies in Europe.
A source told The Telegraph: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position.
“They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”
The Kremlin said it had received an updated strategy for ending the war. They gave no more details.
Meanwhile, thr Russian forces are making incremental gains on the front line as Ukrainian cities suffer hours of blackouts every day due to a rolling bombardment of its power grid.
A Russian drone and missile attacks in and around Ukraine’s capital killed at least three people early Saturday, officials said.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 29 people were wounded in Kyiv, noting that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hit residential buildings.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15568257/ukraine-officials-us-peace-talks-russia-drones/
