Much has been made over a redrafting process, on the Nov. 22-23 weekend, of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan by the negotiating teams in Geneva headed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukraine’s besieged head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak, and their coming up with a 19-point plan. Yet, even by Kiev’s account, many points were agreed upon, several major ones were deliberately left aside, to be addressed, supposedly, by Trump and by Ukraine’s acting president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Geneva talks finished, and today Secretary Rubio returned to Washington, D.C.
In Moscow, asked about the matter, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded Nov. 24 that Russia had “not received anything official yet” regarding the outcomes of the Geneva talks. “We are, of course, closely monitoring media reports, which have been abundant over the past few days, including from Geneva…. We have not seen any plan yet. We have read the statement following the discussions in Geneva. Some adjustments have been made to the text we saw earlier. We will wait. Apparently, the dialogue is continuing there, and some contacts will continue. So far, I repeat, we have not received anything officially.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Nov. 24 that on Nov. 25 the Coalition of the Willing will meet via video, to confer on their stance on the proposals so far.
Apparently, the Geneva sessions began with the U.S. team in heated objections to the Kiev team having circulated rumors that the 28 points were actually written by Moscow. However, one of the participants, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, told the Financial Times: “After hours of painstaking talks that nearly fell apart before they started, the U.S. and Ukrainian teams reached agreements on several issues but ‘placed in brackets’ the most contentious points—including territorial issues and relations between NATO, Russia and the U.S.—for U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to decide.”
FT quoted Kyslytsya: “Very few things are left from the original version. We developed a solid body of convergence, and a few things we can compromise on. The rest will need leadership decisions.”
Last evening, the two agreed on a joint statement: “Both sides agreed the consultations were highly productive. The discussions showed meaningful progress toward aligning positions and identifying clear next steps.... Ukraine and the United States agreed to continue intensive work on joint proposals in the coming days. They will also remain in close contact with their European partners as the process advances. Final decisions under this framework will be made by the Presidents of Ukraine and the United States.”
On Nov. 24, Yermak’s adviser Oleksandr Bevz, also a member of the delegation, reported to Suspilne Ukraine that there was “no final version of the document,” as some issues had been left out of the technical talks in Geneva. “Some of the most difficult issues will be resolved by the presidents. There are not many of them, but they are certainly of the greatest public interest…. I think that in the coming days, they will finalize this text. We hope that communication between the presidents of Ukraine and the United States will take place in the near future, and we would not like to be tied to the deadlines that were set earlier.”
Today White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt commented that, at the present, there is no scheduled meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump.
