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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland under an updated plan to end the war with Russia – creating a demilitarized zone if Moscow also withdrew from the area.
Unveiling the latest 20-point plan, Mr Zelensky said the US had not yet fully agreed Donbass region A “free economic zone” could be created, but it was not clear how. conflict zone Will be governed or developed.
The peace plan, which Mr Zelensky said would need to be put in place before the referendum, could also include similar arrangements around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control,
The plan, presented by the Ukrainian leader to journalists on Christmas Eve, marks the latest counter-proposal to the original 28-point document agreed By US envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russians.
Moscow has so far given no indication that it will agree to return the land it has seized.
The plan also came a day after an explosion in southern Moscow killed three people, including two police officers, while fighting continued on the battlefield in Ukraine’s east.
Mr Zelensky said: “This is a document known as a framework, a fundamental document on ending the war, a political document between us, the US, Europe and the Russians. We are ready to meet with the United States at the level of leaders to resolve sensitive issues.”
“Issues like regional questions should be discussed at the level of leaders,” he said.
Russia had previously insisted that Ukraine give up its remaining territory in Donbass – an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70 percent of Donetsk – the two regions that make up Donbass.
Mr Zelensky said creating a demilitarized economic zone in Donbass would require difficult discussions about how far troops would need to retreat and where international forces would be deployed.
However, he said, it would provide his country with the “strong” security guarantees that its NATO partners would need to take action in the event of a Russian attack.
Asked about Mr Zelensky’s plans, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would decide its position based on information received from Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who met with US envoys in Florida over the weekend.
The working US-Ukraine draft also proposes that Russian troops withdraw from the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
US negotiators have held separate talks with Ukraine and Russia since US President Donald Trump presented a plan to end the war last month – a proposal widely seen to favor Moscow, which invaded its neighbor nearly four years ago.
Under the plan, Ukraine would be allowed a maximum peacetime troop strength of 800,000 and there would be an $800 billion fundraising project for Ukraine’s reconstruction.
The city of Enrhodar, the nearest town to the Zaporizhia power plant, will also become a demilitarized free economic zone, Mr. Zelensky said. The US proposes that the plant be jointly operated by Ukraine, the US and Russia.
The updated plan was unveiled on the day of another explosion in Moscow, which killed three people, including two police officers.
Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said officers were approaching a “suspicious person” when an explosive device detonated.
Two days earlier, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was killed when an explosive device detonated under his vehicle in the same area.
investigators said ukraine He may have been behind the attack, which was the third killing of a senior military officer in more than a year.
Even on Christmas Eve, ukraineThe US said its forces had retreated from the embattled eastern city of Siverssk. Bakhmut,
“The attackers were able to advance due to a significant numerical advantage and sustained pressure from small attack groups in difficult weather conditions,” ukraineGeneral Staff said.
But Ukraine’s military said its forces were maintaining pressure on Pokrovsk, 50 miles from Bakhmut, and would continue to try to disrupt supplies to Russian troops inside.