Ukraine to give revised peace plan to US as Kyiv readies for talks with partners

Ukraine is expected to hand its latest peace proposals to United States negotiators later, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

It would come a day ahead of his urgent talks with leaders and officials from about 30 other countries supporting Kyiv’s effort to end the war with Russia on acceptable terms.

As tension builds around US President Donald Trump’s push for a settlement and his calls for an election in Ukraine, Mr Zelensky said his country would be ready for such a vote within three months if partners can guarantee safe balloting during wartime and if its electoral law can be altered.

Washington’s goal of a swift compromise to stop the fighting that followed Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022 is reducing Kyiv’s room for manoeuvre.

Mr Zelensky is walking a tightrope between defending Ukrainian interests and showing Mr Trump he is willing to make some compromises, even as Moscow shows no public sign of budging from its demands.

Ukraine’s European allies are backing Mr Zelensky’s efforts to ensure that any settlement is fair and deters future Russian attacks, as well as accommodating Europe’s defence interests.

The French government said Ukraine’s allies – dubbed the Coalition of the Willing – will discuss the negotiations on Thursday via video. Mr Zelensky said it would include those countries’ leaders.

“We need to bring together 30 colleagues very quickly. And it’s not easy, but nevertheless we will do it,” he said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in Berlin that “we are currently witnessing considerable diplomatic momentum” in peace efforts.

Mr Zelensky said discussions with the US were scheduled later Wednesday to focus on a document detailing plans for Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and economic development.

Also, Ukraine is finalising work on a separate, 20-point framework for ending the war. Mr Zelensky said Kyiv expects to submit that document to Washington in the near future.

Mr Zelensky’s openness to an election was a response to comments by Mr Trump in which he questioned Ukraine’s democracy and suggested the Ukrainian leader was using the war as an excuse not to stand before voters. Those comments echo similar remarks often made by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Zelensky told reporters that he is “ready” for an election but would need help from the US and possibly Europe to ensure its security.

He suggested that Ukraine could be ready to hold balloting in 60 to 90 days if that proviso is met.

“To hold elections, two issues must be addressed: primarily, security – how to conduct them, how to do it under strikes, under missile attacks; and a question regarding our military – how they would vote,” Mr Zelensky said.

“And the second issue is the legislative framework required to ensure the legitimacy of elections.”

Previously, Mr Zelensky had pointed out that a ballot cannot legally take place while martial law imposed due to Russia’s invasion nearly four years ago is in place.

He has also asked how a vote could happen when civilian areas of Ukraine are being bombarded by Russia and almost 20% of the country is under Russian occupation.

Mr Zelensky said he has asked politicians from his party in parliament to draw up legislative proposals that would allow elections while Ukraine is under martial law.

Ukrainians have on the whole supported Mr Zelensky’s arguments, and there has been no clamour in Ukraine for an election. Under the Ukrainian law that is in force, Mr Zelensky’s rule is legitimate.

Mr Putin has repeatedly complained that Mr Zelensky cannot legitimately negotiate a peace settlement because his five-year term in office that began in 2019 has expired.

A new US national security strategy released last Friday made it clear that Mr Trump wants to improve America’s relationship with Moscow and “re-establish strategic stability with Russia”.

The document also portrays European allies as weak.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday praised Mr Trump’s role in the Ukraine peace effort, saying in a speech at the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, that Moscow appreciates his “commitment to dialogue”.

Mr Lavrov said Mr Trump is “the only western leader” who shows “an understanding of the reasons that made war in Ukraine inevitable”.

Mr Trump’s peace efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands from Moscow and Kyiv.

The initial US peace proposal was heavily slanted towards Russia’s demands. To counter that, Mr Zelensky has turned to his European supporters.

In recent days, Mr Zelensky met the leaders of Britain, Germany and France in London, and the heads of Nato and the European Union in Brussels, before travelling on to Rome for talks with the Italian prime minister and Pope Leo XIV.

Europe’s support is uneven, however, and that has meant a drop-off in military aid since the Trump administration this year cut off supplies to Kyiv unless they were paid for by other Nato countries.

Foreign military help for Ukraine fell sharply over the summer, and that trend continued through September and October, a German body that tracks international help for Ukraine said on Wednesday.

Average annual aid, mostly provided by the US and Europe, was around 41.6 billion euros between 2022–2024. But so far this year Ukraine has received just 32.5 billion euros, the Kiel Institute said.

It said that “if this slower pace continues in the remaining months (of the year), 2025 will become the year with the lowest level of new aid allocations” since the war began.

This year, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have substantially increased their help for Ukraine, while Germany nearly tripled its average monthly allocations and France and the UK both more than doubled their contributions, according to the Kiel Institute.

On the other hand, it said, Spain recorded no new military aid for Kyiv in 2025 while Italy reduced its low contributions by 15% compared with 2022–2024.