KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that negotiators are grappling with the issue of territorial possessions in U.S.-led peace talks to end the war with Russia, including the future of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region and the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the world’s largest nuclear power plants.
Zelensky revealed details of the ongoing talks before starting urgent talks with leaders and officials from about 30 countries that support Kiev’s efforts to get fair terms in any deal to end nearly four years of fighting.
In Washington, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, continued to have talks with both sides. She said that “if there is a real chance of signing a peace agreement” then the US could send a representative to the talks as soon as this weekend.
But Leavitt added that “it’s still up in the air whether we believe real peace can be achieved.”
Trump has long boasted that he could resolve Russia’s war in Ukraine one day, but in recent months he has complained bitterly about the lack of progress. Leavitt said that during her briefing with reporters Thursday, saying the president is “extremely frustrated on both sides of this war.”
She said the administration has spent more than 30 hours in recent weeks alone meeting with officials from Russia and Ukraine, as well as Europe, and that Trump is “sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting.”
“He doesn’t want to talk anymore,” Leavitt said. “He wants action.”
Ukraine presented the US with a 20-point plan, with each point possibly accompanied by a separate document detailing settlement terms.
“We are grateful that the US is working with us and trying to take a balanced position,” Zelensky told reporters in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. “But at this point it’s still difficult to say what the final documents will look like.”
In recent months, Russia has made a determined push to gain control of all parts of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, which together make up Ukraine’s valuable industrial Donbas region.
Ukraine does not accept the surrender of Donbass, Zelensky said, saying both sides staying where they currently are along the contact line would be “a fair outcome”.
American negotiators have floated the possibility of a “free economic zone” in Donbas, with the Russians calling it a “demilitarized zone,” according to Zelensky.
Russian officials have not publicly disclosed their proposals.
American negotiators envisage the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Donetsk region, with the compromise being that Russian forces do not enter that territory, Zelensky said.
But he said that if Ukraine had to withdraw its forces, the Russians should also withdraw the same distance. There are many unanswered questions, including who will oversee Donbas, he added.
The Russians want to retain control of the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine, which is currently defunct, but Ukraine is opposed.
The Americans have suggested a common format for managing the plant, and negotiators are discussing how that might work, Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine’s allies discuss peace plan with Zelensky
The leaders of Germany, Britain and France were among those who took part in the meeting of Ukraine’s allies, called the Coalition of the Will, via video link.
Zelenskyy indicated the talks were hastily arranged as officials in Kiev scramble to avoid being blocked by US President Donald Trump, who has disparaged the Ukrainian leader, painted European leaders as weak and laid out a strategy to improve Washington’s relationship with Moscow.
In the face of Trump’s demands for a quick settlement, European governments are scrambling to help lead peace talks because they say their own security is at stake.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday that he, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron suggested Trump finalize peace proposals with US officials over the weekend. There could also be talks in Berlin early next week, with or without American officials, he said.
The talks are at a “critical moment”, European leaders said on Wednesday.
Next week, Ukraine will coordinate with European countries bilaterally, Zelensky said late Wednesday, and European Union countries are set to hold a regular summit in Brussels at the end of next week.
Russia has new security proposals
Trump’s latest effort to broker a deal is taking longer than he wanted. He initially set a deadline for Kiev to accept his peace plan before Thanksgiving. Washington’s previous deadlines for a peace deal have also passed without progress.
Russia is also keen to show Trump it is committed to his peace efforts, hoping to avoid further US sanctions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Russia had submitted to Washington “additional proposals … on collective security guarantees” that Ukraine and Europe say are needed to deter future aggression.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Thursday that Russia has launched more than 46,000 drones and missiles against Ukraine this year.
He warned his European audience at a speech in Berlin: “We are Russia’s next target.”
He also described China as Russia’s “lifeline” to its war effort in Ukraine, supplying most of the critical electronic components Moscow needs for its weapons. “China wants to prevent its ally from losing in Ukraine,” Rutte said.
Russia claims progress on the battlefield
Putin claimed in a call with military leaders on Thursday that the Russian armed forces “fully own the strategic initiative” on the battlefield.
Russian troops have captured the city of Siversk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where fighting has been fierce in recent months, Lt. Gen. Sergei Medvedev told Putin.
Ukrainian officials denied that Siversk had been captured.
Putin wants to present himself as negotiating from a position of strength, analysts say, even though Russia only occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine. This includes Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the seizure of territory in the east by Russian-backed separatists later that year, as well as land taken after the all-out invasion in 2022.
Ukrainian drones hit Russian oil rig and disrupt flights to Moscow
Meanwhile, long-range Ukrainian drones struck a Russian oil rig in the Caspian Sea for the first time, according to a Security Service of Ukraine official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The oil platform in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Ukraine, belongs to Russia’s second largest oil company, Lukoil, the official told The Associated Press. The rig took four hits, halting oil and gas extraction from more than 20 wells, he said.
Russian officials and Lukoil had no immediate comment on the claim.
Ukraine also launched overnight one of the largest drone attacks of the war, grounding flights in and out of all four Moscow airports for seven hours. Airports in eight other cities also faced restrictions, Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said.
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Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia and Will Weissert in Washington contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine