LONDON — U.S., Ukrainian and European officers gathered in Switzerland on Sunday for talks on the contentious American-Russian peace plan put to Kyiv this week, with phrases critics say represent a Ukrainian capitulation.
A U.S. delegation that features Military Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Ukrainian officers in Geneva, a high U.S. official informed ABC Information Saturday.
A U.S. official informed ABC Information that Driscoll held “good conferences” with the Ukrainian delegation on Saturday evening, which the official described as “optimistic and constructive.” Sunday afternoon will see extra formal engagements between the delegations, the official stated.
Andriy Yermak, the pinnacle of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s workplace and the chief of Kyiv’s delegation in Geneva, stated in a publish to social media that the Ukrainian group was “in a really constructive temper” because it started conferences with European officers.
A U.S. official informed ABC Information that there are plans for the U.S. delegation to carry a separate assembly with a Russian delegation. No particulars had been offered in regards to the location of the deliberate assembly with the Russians.
A airplane believed to be transporting a U.S. delegation together with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, lands at Geneva airport, in Switzerland, on Nov. 23, 2025.
Valentin Flauraud/AFP through Getty Photographs
The U.S. has threatened Ukraine with an entire halt to all help if Kyiv doesn’t conform to the proposed deal, a high-ranking Ukrainian official near the matter informed ABC Information on Sunday.
This halt would come with the availability of air protection missiles, in addition to intelligence sharing and all different commitments associated to weapons deliveries and help from the U.S., the official stated.
In a publish to social media, Zelenskyy urged international companions to additional strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses, as long-range nightly Russian strikes proceed. On Saturday evening into Sunday morning, Russia launched 98 drones into Ukraine, in line with the Ukrainian air drive. Sixty-nine of the craft had been shot down or suppressed.
“In parallel with the diplomatic observe, we should do every little thing to strengthen our protection towards such depraved Russian assaults,” Zelenskyy wrote. “This can be very vital to hurry up the implementation of all our agreements with companions relating to air protection methods and missiles for them.”
The U.S.-proposed 28-point peace plan was drafted in coordination with the Kremlin and with enter from Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s Nationwide Safety and Defence Council.
Rescue staff clear the rubble of a residential constructing which was closely broken by a Russian strike in Ternopil, Ukraine, on Nov. 21, 2025.
Vlad Kravchuk/AP
The plan contains numerous maximalist calls for that the Kremlin has lengthy demanded and which were beforehand dismissed as non-starters for Kyiv, together with that Ukraine lower its armed forces by greater than half and cede swaths of territory not but occupied by Russia.
Ukraine would even be forbidden from possessing long-range weapons, whereas Moscow would retain just about all of the territory it has occupied — and obtain some type of recognition of its 2014 seizure of Crimea below the newest proposed U.S. plan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated throughout a gathering of his Safety Council on Friday that the Kremlin had acquired the proposal. “I imagine that it may additionally type the idea for a remaining peace settlement, however this textual content has not been mentioned with us intimately,” Putin stated.
“I imagine the reason being the identical: the U.S. administration has not but managed to safe the settlement of the Ukrainian facet, as Ukraine is against it,” Putin added. “Apparently, Ukraine and its European allies are nonetheless below the phantasm that they will inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield.”
In an handle to the nation on Friday, Zelenskyy stated Ukraine is going through “some of the tough moments in our historical past” and that Ukraine within the coming days might have to decide on between “dignity” or the “danger of shedding a key companion,” that means the U.S.
He promised to “work calmly” and shortly with the U.S. on the plan and to seek for “constructive options.” He added, “I’ll current arguments, I’ll persuade, I’ll supply options.”
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Russia, Nov. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump in Washington, Nov. 17, 2025 and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Athens, Greece, Nov. 16, 2025.
AFP through Getty Photographs/AP
U.S. President Donald Trump instructed on Saturday that there’s room for additional negotiation. Requested by reporters whether or not this was his final supply, Trump replied, “No.”
“We would prefer to get to peace,” Trump stated. “A technique or one other we’ll get it ended.”
On Saturday, a bipartisan group of senators stated they had been informed by Rubio in a telephone name that the 28-point plan was developed by Russia, not the U.S.
In a press release on social media Saturday night, Rubio denied the senators’ claims, asserting “the peace proposal was authored by the U.S.”
Rubio didn’t immediately reply to the senators’ characterization of his message to them.
Rubio described the proposal as “a powerful framework for ongoing negotiations,” including, “It’s based mostly on enter from the Russian facet. However it’s also based mostly on earlier and ongoing enter from Ukraine.”
This handout {photograph}, taken on Nov 12. 2025, and launched on Nov. 15, 2025 by the press service of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Floor Forces, exhibits a Ukrainian serviceman within the city of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk area.
Iryna Rybakova/93RD SEPARATE MECHANIZED BRIGADE
In a press release, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds stated the administration’s peace efforts are “counting on enter from each Russia and Ukraine.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed his skepticism of the proposed plan in a publish to X on Sunday, wherein he stated the “leaders of Europe, Canada and Japan” had “declared our readiness to work on the 28-point plan regardless of some reservations.”
“Nevertheless, earlier than we begin our work, it might be good to know for certain who’s the creator of the plan and the place was it created,” Tusk stated.
In an open letter despatched to ABC Information on Sunday, a bunch of 48 present and former officers and lawmakers from Europe and Ukraine wrote to Trump warning that “any appeasement of Russia” can be “morally reprehensible and an outrage towards human decency.”
“Robust American management is the one hope,” the letter added. “A cowed America can by no means be nice once more, a cowed America can by no means be first. America is simply nice and first when it steadfastly stands for freedom, democracy, respect for human rights and rule of regulation.”
One of many signatories — Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the physique’s international affairs committee — informed ABC Information that of all 28 factors within the U.S.-proposed deal, solely the clause confirming Ukraine’s sovereignty gave him purpose for optimism.
ABC Information’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Somayeh Malekian, Christopher Boccia and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
