U.S. and Ukraine Hail Progress on Peace Plan to End War With Russia

U.S. and Ukrainian mediators emerged from two days of talks on Monday with a slimmed-down peace framework that sets aside contentious issues, as Ukrainian officials underscored their country’s “red lines” on territory, military capacity and foreign alliances.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine was at a “critical moment” and would soon determine its next steps. He spoke after high-level discussions in Geneva on Sunday in which Ukraine and its European allies laid out concerns about a draft of a 28-point peace proposal that was favorable to Russia on many issues.

President Trump, who is pushing Ukraine to agree to a settlement by Thanksgiving but has indicated that talks could continue, said on Monday that “something good just may be happening.”

As Ukrainian officials told news outlets that a significant reworking of the plan had brought it closer to Ukraine’s position on several points, it raised questions about whether Russia would agree to any proposal that did not hew to its maximalist demands. The initial 28-point plan, drafted by the Trump administration with Russian input, called for Ukraine to cede land, shrink its army and forswear membership in NATO.

With the uncertainty about how the most sensitive issues will be resolved by the American and Ukrainian presidents, it remained to be seen whether the latest flurry of diplomacy would produce concrete results or fizzle as previous bursts did.

Until last week, the Trump administration’s efforts to broker an end to the war had been seemingly stalled. An August meeting in Alaska between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia produced little in the way of substance. Mr. Trump canceled a planned meeting last month with Mr. Putin in Budapest after he said the Russian president had no intention of making a deal.