Neither Russia nor Ukraine will be happy with peace plan, US warns

Telegraph

3 days ago

Neither Russia nor Ukraine will be happy with the peace deal proposed to end the war, the United States has warned.
As the shape of negotiations started to emerge on Sunday, JD Vance, the US vice-president, admitted that neither side would be content with the terms of the agreement, aimed at bringing an end to the three-year conflict.
Mr Vance appeared to suggest that the current front lines would be frozen and territory exchanged to bring about an end to the war.
'Both the Russians and the Ukrainians, probably, at the end of the day, are going to be unhappy with it,' he told Fox News.
Vladimir Putin will travel to Alaska on Friday for a meeting with Donald Trump, marking a potential breakthrough.
The White House is yet to rule out inviting Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, to the summit. His absence has sparked fears that Kyiv could be cut out from negotiations and have a one-sided deal forced upon it.
European leaders, including Mr Zelensky, appear to be on a collision course with Mr Trump, who has suggested an end to the fighting could involve 'some swapping of territories'.
A joint statement by France, Italy, Germany, Poland, the UK and the European Commission said: 'The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine. We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force.'
But the US position started to emerge in more detail on Sunday
'It's actually very simple. If you take where the current line of contact between Russia and Ukraine is, we're going to try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and the Russians can live with, where they can live in relative peace, where the killing stops, it's not going to make anybody super happy,' Mr Vance said.
Mr Zelensky is steadfastly opposed to giving away any territory, vowing to reject any deal that cedes his country's borders. He insisted that 'Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers'.
Currently, Russia controls around 20 per cent of Ukraine's sovereign territory, including all of Crimea and most of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Putin's visit to Alaska will be his first visit to the US since meeting Barack Obama at a UN summit in New York in September 2015. The location of the summit, in a state whose closest point to Russia across the Bering Strait is only three miles away, has added to fears that a peace agreement will be favourable to Putin.
While European leaders pressed for Mr Zelensky's attendance, the Ukrainian president wrote on X: 'The end of the war must be fair, and I am grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine and our people today for the sake of peace in Ukraine, which is defending the vital security interests of our European nations.'
UK Government sources told The Telegraph that it was unlikely that a European delegation would attend the Alaska summit, but acknowledged that plans could change this week.
Allies are concerned that they will not have enough input on Mr Trump's proposals at the summit with Putin, given divergent views between the White House and European capitals on how to end the war.
It is understood that Sir Keir Starmer will continue calls with European counterparts this week in an attempt to establish a united position on the conflict, and it is possible a full meeting of Sir Keir, Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders will take place before Mr Trump heads to Alaska.
'We hope and assume that the government of Ukraine, that President Zelensky will be involved in this meeting,' Friedrich Merz , the chancellor of Germany, said in an interview with broadcaster ARD.
He said Berlin was working closely with Washington to try to ensure Mr Zelensky's attendance at the talks, adding: 'We cannot accept in any case that territorial questions are discussed or even decided between Russia and America over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians. I assume that the American government sees it the same way.
'We hope that there will be a breakthrough on Friday. Above all, that there will finally be a ceasefire and that there can be peace negotiations in Ukraine.'