By Independent News Roundup
RT: FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky at the White House, Washington, DC. August 18, 2025. © Getty Images / Anna Moneymaker
Moscow has decried megaphone diplomacy being practised in the West, amid Ukrainian claims that Kiev's officials have radically changed a draft peace plan delivered by US President Donald Trump's envoy to Vladimir Zelensky last week.
Zelensky reportedly hopes to travel to the US by the end of the week to “make a deal” on what are expected to be Ukraine's demands to be included in a draft peace plan, his office has announced.
French President Emmanuel Macron, a member of Kiev's so-called coalition of the willing' that seeks to base its troops in a post-conflict Ukraine, has said Washington’s proposal still needs to be “discussed, negotiated, and improved,” summing up the joint stance of the EU and UK.
Western media claimed on Tuesday that US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has been holding talks with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi with a draft reportedly developed with a Ukrainian delegation in Switzerland over the weekend. The Kremlin has neither confirmed nor denied that talks are taking place.
Kiev's European backers, blindsided by the emergence of the US plan, have emphasised a maximalist position, outright rejecting territorial concessions as part of a peace deal, which is a red line for Moscow.
Russia's diplomats, not having been invited to any of the high-profile talks sessions convened quickly following the delivery of a peace plan to Kiev, nor having received any official documents from any party to the talks, have been understandably tight-lipped.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the EU and UK on Tuesday of attempting to undermine Trump’s peace efforts and distort the plan “for their own agenda.” Moscow remains, however, ready to discuss clauses in the American proposals with Washington, he stressed.
As it stands the respective sides are as fundamentally far apart as ever, despite the overtures being made to Washington by Kiev, and the megaphone diplomacy coming from Brussels.
The “counter-plan” brought forward by Kiev’s Western European backers is essentially a sabotage operation that aims to set conditions that Russia would find unacceptable and stall for time to allow more arms supplies for Ukraine, independent geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar has said.
One of the European proposal’s points is a 30-day ceasefire, with all territorial concessions to be discussed later, he said in an op-ed for Strategic Culture.
“That means everything frozen on the current front line, and no Ukraine withdrawal from the parts of Donbass they still occupy,” he wrote. “None of that – and much more – is remotely acceptable to the actual winner of the war, Russia.”
Meanwhile, Russia enjoys its advantages on the battlefield and continues pushing forward, he said.
Yet, no voice of reason has so far been capable of making EU leaders understand “that losers in wars do not dictate terms,” Escobar said.
Donald Trump has announced that he has directed US special envoy Steve Witkoff to travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Simultaneously, US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who reportedly held talks with Russian officials on Tuesday, will be sent for negotiations with Ukraine, the US president wrote on Truth Social.
Only a “few remaining points of disagreement” were left after the US-drafted peace plan was “fine-tuned” with “input from both sides” during the recent talks, Trump said.
“I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelensky and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages,” he added.
Moscow has long said that it will only accept a permanent peace that eliminates the root causes of the conflict, and not a temporary ceasefire.
Vladimir Zelensky has suggested that his European backers could join his upcoming meeting with Donald Trump to discuss “sensitive points” of the peace proposal.
“I am ready to meet with President Trump – there are sensitive points to discuss, we have them still, and we think that the presence of European leaders could be helpful,” Zelensky told his Western backers in a virtual meeting, according to CNN.
Earlier, his chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, said that the subject of territorial concessions would be a key bridge to cross at the talks with the US president.
He added that Kiev would not swear off its commitment to join NATO, a key clause of Trump’s peace plan.
Ukraine’s ambition to join the military bloc is a red line for Moscow and effectively kills any possible peace deal with Russia.
A peace deal in the Ukraine conflict is “very close,” US President Donald Trump has announced.
“We’re going to get there... we’re getting very close to a deal,” he said at a pre-Thanksgiving event at the White House.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Trump’s peace plan was an updated version of the proposal developed during their bilateral summit in Alaska earlier this year, and that it could form “the basis” for a final agreement.
However, should “the spirit of Anchorage be erased” from the plan that Washington ends up bringing to its talks with Russia, “the situation would be radically different,” Moscow has said.
The UK claims that Kiev has agreed to a “large part” of Trump’s amended peace deal, following the talks in Geneva.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, according to Sky News, has claimed that the Ukrainian leader has indicated that “in large part the majority of the text” can “be accepted.”
Moscow has refused to discuss media leaks regarding the US-drafted proposal, denouncing “megaphone diplomacy.”
Russia is willing to discuss “specific wording” of a potential peace deal, but will not compromise on the core objectives outlined by President Vladimir Putin to Trump during the summit in Alaska in August, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stressed.
Nor will Ukraine accept being left out of NATO, Yermak has also reportedly added. Ukraine's potential membership of the US-led military bloc was a key factor in the escalation of the conflict in 2022, so how Yermak views this position as something Moscow could accept is not clear.
The point is a key Russian peace demand, and reportedly one of 28 points of Trump’s proposal to end the Ukraine conflict.
The US president’s initial plan was “unacceptable,” Axios cited Yermak as saying. “My proposal is to forget about the 28 points.”
Kiev’s Western backers are now “working to make a plan which will be acceptable for Ukraine,” he reportedly said.
Vladimir Zelensky says he wants to meet with Donald Trump “as soon as possible” and possibly by this Thursday, to discuss Ukraine's submissions to what could be a US peace plan draft, Axios has reported, citing Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak.
Once a joint draft is “confirmed and agreed,” Trump could then approach Russia with it, Yermak reportedly said in a Zoom interview.
The primary bone of contention during the talks would be over potential territorial handovers, he added, ignoring Russia's position that no presidential talks will take place until agreements on all substantive issues have been worked through.
There are “delicate” details to sort out in talks over Donald Trump’s peace plan despite “tremendous progress” being made, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said.
“There are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States,” she wrote on X.
Kiev has reportedly rejected a US-draft proposed limit of 600,000 peacetime personnel on its army and wants that number to be closer to 1 million, the Financial Times’ Kiev correspondent, Christopher Miller, reports, citing anonymous officials.
“Under the US-Ukraine deal, Kiev agreed to cap the size of its army at 800,000, according to senior officials who say they're pleased with the plan,” he said on X. “Points left are territorial matters and security guarantees, which are TBD by Zelensky and Trump.”
Earlier this year, Zelensky claimed that Ukrainian forces had 880,000 active troops.
Kiev supports Donald Trump’s peace framework in essence, following Sunday’s talks in Geneva, Reuters has reported, citing an anonymous Ukrainian official.
“Ukraine – after Geneva – supports the framework’s essence, and some of the most sensitive issues remain as points for the discussion between presidents,” the outlet cited its source as saying.
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