The White House said Tuesday afternoon that only a few "sensitive" — but manageable — details remain before a U.S.-brokered peace agreement for Ukraine could be completed. Earlier reporting by the Financial Times indicated that Kyiv has accepted parts of a draft plan seen as unfavorable to Moscow, while the most consequential issues would be resolved directly between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described "huge progress" over the past week toward a peace agreement and said further talks among Ukraine, Russia and the United States will be necessary. On X she wrote that the U.S. has made tremendous progress in bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table and that only a few "sensitive, but not insurmountable" details remain to be settled requiring additional trilateral discussions.
Financial Times reporting, based on conversations with Ukrainian officials, corroborated earlier U.S. comments that Kyiv has agreed to core elements of the Trump administration’s draft. According to the FT’s Kyiv correspondent Christopher Miller, the Ukrainian delegation at talks in Geneva accepted items that were not strongly favorable to Moscow, but left the most contentious issues — notably territorial arrangements and post‑war security guarantees for Ukraine — to be discussed between Trump and Zelensky when they meet in Washington, likely before the end of the month.
One specific detail reported by the FT is that Ukraine agreed to reduce the size of its armed forces, but to 800,000 personnel rather than the 600,000 figure proposed in the original White House draft.
Moscow’s initial response was hostile. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow had received, via unofficial channels, an American peace proposal said to contain 28 points, and suggested Russia would not accept the plan as presented. Lavrov accused the West of attempting to "rework Trump’s plan and undermine efforts to resolve" the conflict, and said the situation would change if agreements from an Alaska summit were removed from the draft. The Russian foreign ministry has not publicly confirmed participation in related talks reportedly held in Abu Dhabi, and Moscow has not disclosed the composition of any delegation to those meetings. (See BBC Russian Service coverage.)
A U.S. official told NewsNation that Ukraine had agreed to the main elements of the Trump administration’s peace proposal, while some details remain to be resolved. U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll was reported to be in Abu Dhabi for meetings with Russian and Ukrainian officials about the Trump plan.
Ukraine’s Rustem Umerov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, said on social media that Ukrainian and U.S. delegations agreed on the "basic terms" of the deal presented in Geneva and praised the productive meetings there. Umerov added that Kyiv now counts on support from European partners for the next steps and said Ukraine looks forward to arranging President Zelensky’s visit to the U.S. in November to finalize outstanding steps and reach an agreement with President Trump.
Ukrainian officials who took part in the Geneva talks told reporters the U.S.-drafted package has been pared down to remove items unrelated to Ukraine, eliminate duplication and for clarity. Oleksandr Bevz, one of Ukraine’s representatives at the talks, said the document will continue to change and denied reports that the 28‑point U.S. plan had already been reduced to 19 points (see linked report).[1]
The U.S. initiative has faced criticism for being overly favorable to Russia, but U.S. officials say the draft is not final and remains subject to revision as negotiations continue. President Zelensky said Monday that the list of necessary steps to end the war "could become feasible" after negotiators left Geneva optimistic about progress and that he planned to discuss remaining "sensitive" issues with President Trump.
Sources: Financial Times; White House statements/X (Karoline Leavitt); NewsNation; BBC Russian service; Associated Press; Ukrainian official posts.
[1] Report referencing a claimed reduction to 19 points: https://www.protothema.gr/world/article/1732287/ft-ipa-kai-oukrania-sumfonisan-se-shedio-19-simeion-gia-to-telos-tou-polemou/
