Russia criticizes European counter-proposal to end the war in Ukraine

The European counterproposal would allow Ukraine to maintain up to 800,000 troops in peacetime, instead of the 600,000 suggested by the US. The text also provides that Ukraine will not attempt to militarily retake the occupied areas, with negotiations on territorial agreements starting from the existing line of contact.

The text says that Ukraine can only join NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) if all countries agree, and that does not happen today. It also states that NATO will not have permanent troops in Ukraine in peacetime. Even so, the European proposal would give Ukraine a US security guarantee, similar to NATO’s Article 5, which says that an attack on one alliance country is an attack on all.

The plan calls for Kiev to be compensated financially, including through frozen Russian sovereign assets, which would remain blocked until Russia compensates Ukraine for war damage. It also says Ukraine must hold national elections as soon as possible after signing a peace agreement.

Europe rejects points presented by the US that affect Ukrainian sovereignty, German Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the Deutsche Welle agency. “I had a call with President (Donald) Trump before I left the country. I told him that we could agree on some points, but there are others that we cannot agree on, and I told him that we are completely aligned with Ukraine…we don’t know what the outcome of these negotiations might be. At the end of the day, Ukraine’s sovereignty cannot be questioned,” he said.

Negotiators praise advances

Ukrainian negotiators say talks in Geneva have already changed the peace plan and brought it closer to what Ukraine wants. The Ukrainian representative, Rustem Umerov, stated that the most recent version of the text already includes most of the country’s priorities, although it has not yet been fully approved.