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President stresses most sensitive issues of 20-point peace plan require meeting with leaders despite progress in talks
Maryam Zakir-Hussain Wednesday 24 December 2025 20:29 GMT- Bookmark
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky says he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland in an updated plan to end the war with Russia – if Moscow also pulled back from the area, creating a demilitarised zone.
Unveiling the latest 20-point plan thrashed out but not yet fully agreed with the US, Mr Zelensky said the Donbas region could become a “free economic zone”, but it was unclear how the fought-over area would be governed or developed.
The peace plan, which Mr Zelensky said would need to be put before a referendum, could also involve a similar arrangement around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control.
The plan, presented to reporters on Christmas Eve by the Ukrainian leader, marked the latest counter-proposal to an original 28-point document that was agreed by US envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russians.
Moscow has so far given no indication it will agree to withdrawal from land it has seized.
open image in galleryZelensky has unveiled an updated peace plan after talks between Ukrainian negotiators and US officials (UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE/AF)The plan also came on a day when an explosion in southern Moscow killed three people, including two police officers, as fighting continued on the battlefield in the east of Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky said: “This is a document referred to as a framework, a foundational document on ending the war, a political document between us, America, Europe, and the Russians. We are ready for a meeting with the United States at the leaders’ level to address sensitive issues.”
“Matters such as territorial questions must be discussed at the leaders’ level,” he added.
Russia has previously insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it holds in the Donbas – an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70 per cent of Donetsk – the two areas that make up the Donbas.
Creating the demilitarised economic zone in the Donbas would require difficult discussions on how far troops would be required to move back and where international forces would be stationed, Mr Zelensky said.
However, he added, it would provide his country with “strong” security guarantees that would require its Nato partners to act in the event of a Russian assault.
Asked about Mr Zelensky’s plan, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would decide its position based on information received by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who met US envoys in Florida over the weekend.
open image in galleryUkrainian forces fire a M777 Howitzer amid attacks from Russia in the Dnipropetrovsk of Ukraine on Christmas Eve (REUTERS)The working US-Ukraine draft also proposes that Russian forces withdraw from the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
American negotiators have engaged in a series of talks with Ukraine and Russia separately since US president Donald Trump presented a plan to end the war last month – a proposal widely seen as favouring Moscow, which invaded its neighbour nearly four years ago.
Under the plan, Ukraine would be allowed a maximum military strength of 800,000 in peacetime and there would be an $800bn fundraising project for Ukraine’s reconstruction.
The city of Enerhodar, which is the closest city to the Zaporizhia power plant, would also become a demilitarised free economic zone, said Mr Zelensky. The US proposes the plant be jointly operated by Ukraine, the US and Russia.
The unveiling of the updated plan came on a day of another explosion in Moscow, killing three people including two police officers.
The officers were approaching a “suspicious individual” when an explosive device detonated, said investigate committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko.
open image in galleryAn explosion in southern Moscow killed three people, including two police officers (AP)Two days earlier, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the operational training directorate of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff, died when an explosive device detonated under his vehicle in the same area.
Investigators said Ukraine may have been behind the attack, which was the third such killing of a senior military officer in just over a year.
Also on Christmas Eve, Ukraine’s military said its forces had pulled out of the embattled eastern town of Siversk near Bakhmut.
“The invaders were able to advance due to a significant numerical advantage and constant pressure from small assault groups in difficult weather conditions," Ukraine’s General Staff said.
But Ukraine’s military said its forces were keeping up pressure on Pokrovsk, 50 miles from Bakhmut, and would continue trying to sever logistics for Russian troops inside.
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