The US military has said that senior military officials have arrived in Ukraine to discuss ending the war with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the BBC reports.
A US delegation led by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll will meet with Zelensky on the 20th of November. Reports emerged on the 19th of November that the US and Russia have drawn up a new peace plan that includes the transfer of large swaths of Ukrainian territory to Russia. Neither Washington nor Moscow has confirmed the plan.
US military spokesman Colonel David Butler said Driscoll and his team had arrived in Kyiv to gather more information and meet with Ukrainian officials to discuss efforts to end the fighting.
Driscoll met with Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal on the 19th of November, and the Ukrainian later wrote on the X that the meeting focused on the implementation of the defense agreement between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump. He also thanked Washington for approving the sale of Patriot air defense systems.
A Ukrainian official previously told CBS that
the talks during the meeting would focus on the situation on the battlefield and possible ceasefire plans.
Meanwhile, several media outlets have reported on a possible secret US-Russian agreement on solutions to end the war. Axios, The Financial Times and Reuters have cited a person familiar with the matter and reported that the plan also includes Kyiv giving up territory and weapons, as well as a significant reduction in the Ukrainian armed forces. The 28-point plan is believed to have been drafted by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriyev.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were no additions to the talks in Anchorage in August, but no details of any agreement reached at the time have been made public. Zelensky has repeatedly denied that Kyiv would hand over any part of Ukrainian territory to Moscow.
Kyiv and its Western allies, including the United States, have called for an immediate ceasefire along the entire front line, but Moscow has refused to do so, instead making demands that, from Ukraine’s perspective, amount to de facto capitulation.
In early November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Moscow’s demands remained the same as they were two months before Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Putin’s demands include the return of territory to the Russians, a significant reduction in the armed forces, and Ukraine’s commitment to neutrality.
The White House has confirmed that the current US ambassador to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, will leave his post in January. Ukraine has seen Kellogg as a key ally at a time when Trump has given the impression that the US is siding with Russia.
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