This article was originally published in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Read the original article.
US and Ukrainian officials are expected to meet for a second day of talks in Berlin on December 15 as Washington pushes for an agreement to end Russia's war on Ukraine and Kyiv struggles to avoid a deal that would favor Moscow.
White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son in law Jared Kushner met for five hours with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a team of negotiators in the German capital the previous day.
"Representatives held in-depth discussions regarding the 20-point plan for peace, economic agendas, and more," Witkoff said in a post on X. "A lot of progress was made, and they will meet again tomorrow morning."
It was not clear exactly who would take part in the second day of talks. Zelenskyy had already been scheduled to meet with the leaders of Germany, France, and Britain in Berlin on December 15.
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The 20-point plan emerged after Ukraine and its European backers scrambled to make counterproposals after the United States came out with a 28-point plan that echoed some of Moscow's positions and was widely seen as favorable to Russia.
"In my view, the most important thing is that the plan be as fair as possible – first and foremost for Ukraine, because it was Russia that started this war," Zelenskyy said in a WhatsApp chat with reporters before the talks on December 14. "And above all, it must be workable."
After seizing Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and fomenting war in the eastern Donbas region in 2014, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It currently occupies about one-fifth of the neighboring country.
Crucial hurdles to a peace deal include disputes over territory in the Donbas -- the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Russia's desire to limit the size of Ukraine's army, and what Kyiv and its backers say is the need for airtight security guarantees.
Meanwhile, European Union leaders are set to decide at a summit on December 18 whether the EU can use tens of billions in frozen Russian assets to back a large loan to Ukraine, whose economy is struggling nearly four years into the all-out war.
Another barrier is the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion in an effort subjugate Ukraine, has given few indications he is prepared to make meaningful concessions.
Zelenskyy said on December 14 that Ukraine is ready to drop its desire to join NATO, at least for now, but that ironclad Western security guarantees are needed to ensure Russia does not attack again at some point after a peace deal is reached.
"From the very beginning, Ukraine's desire was to join NATO -- these are real security guarantees," Zelenskyy said in response to a reporter's question in a WhatsApp chat. "Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction," he said.
"Thus, today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries -- Canada, Japan -- are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion," he wrote.
That is "already a compromise from our part," he said, adding that any such guarantees should be legally binding.
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On the issue of territory in the Donbas, Zelenskyy pushed back against proposals that would require Kyiv to cede, even de facto, the portion of the Donetsk region that its forces still hold. And if Ukraine does have to pull back from the front lines in the Donbas, he suggested that Russian forces would have to do so as well.
"I believe that, as of today, a fair and viable option is 'we stand where we stand.' And that is true, because this is precisely what a cease-fire is -- the sides remain where they are, and then attempt to resolve all broader issues through diplomacy, Zelenskyy said in the chat.
I know that Russia views this negatively, and I would like the Americans to support us on this point. But in response to our signal – 'we stand where we stand' – the Russians say that we must withdraw from Donbas, or they will occupy it anyway," he added.
Zelenskyy said that the US is proposing creating a "free economic zone" in the part of the Donetsk region that Kyiv still controls, with Ukrainian forces withdrawing and Russian forces forbidden to enter.
Putin adviser Yury Ushakov, however, repeated the Kremlin's baseless claim that Donetsk and Luhansk are Russian territory and said Moscow would deploy National Guard troops and police in any demilitarized zone there.
Zelenskyy said last week that any potential territorial concession should be put to a vote by the Ukrainian populace. And on December 14, he said that if "Ukrainian forces withdraw 5–10 kilometers, for example, why would Russian forces not also withdraw the same distance deeper into the occupied territories?"
"So this is a question that remains unanswered for now. But it is extremely sensitive and very heated," he said.
Trump has been seeking to broker and end to the war since he took office for a second time in January of this year, but progress has been slow and Putin has said Russia will achieve its goals by force if it cannot do so through diplomacy.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said last week that Trump is “extremely frustrated with both sides of this war.”
Copyright (c)2025 RFE/RL, Inc. Used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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