By Gloria Nosa
Ukraine and the United States have reached broad agreement on several elements of a proposed framework aimed at ending Russia’s nearly four-year war, but deep divisions persist over control of eastern Ukrainian territory and the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
Zelenskyy disclosed the developments as Washington presented a revised 20-point peace proposal to Russian negotiators. Moscow is expected to respond on Wednesday, according to the Ukrainian leader.
Speaking to journalists, Zelenskyy said negotiations had made meaningful progress, but described the fate of Ukraine’s eastern regions—particularly Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively known as the Donbas—as the most difficult and contentious issue.
Russia continues to press for sweeping concessions, demanding that Ukraine surrender the remaining parts of Donbas still under Kyiv’s control. Ukraine has firmly rejected those demands, insisting that it will not cede sovereign territory.
In an attempt to bridge the gap, the United States has floated the idea of converting disputed areas into free economic zones. Zelenskyy said Ukraine could only consider such an arrangement if the territories were fully demilitarised and secured by an international force to guarantee stability and prevent renewed hostilities.
Another major unresolved issue is the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), Europe’s largest, which has been under Russian occupation since the early months of the invasion. Washington has proposed placing the facility under a joint consortium involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States, with each party holding equal shares.
Zelenskyy said Kyiv instead proposed a joint venture between Ukraine and the US, under which Washington would determine how its stake is allocated—potentially to Russia as part of a broader settlement.
“We did not reach agreement with the American side on the territory of the Donetsk region or on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” Zelenskyy said. “However, on most other points, we have significantly narrowed our differences and, in principle, reached consensus.”
Ukraine has also suggested that Enerhodar, the occupied city hosting the nuclear plant, be designated a demilitarised free economic zone. Zelenskyy said discussions on this proposal alone lasted more than 15 hours, reflecting its complexity and sensitivity. He added that restarting the plant would require billions of dollars in investment, including repairs to the nearby dam.
The unresolved issues are expected to remain major obstacles as talks continue. Zelenskyy said the US is seeking solutions that avoid forcing Ukraine to withdraw from Donetsk, while still addressing Russian demands through mechanisms such as demilitarised or special economic zones.
Under the draft framework, the current contact line—stretching across five Ukrainian regions—would be frozen once an agreement is signed. Ukraine maintains that any decision to establish a free economic zone on its territory must be approved by a national referendum, reinforcing that ultimate authority lies with the Ukrainian people.
Zelenskyy said such a process would take at least 60 days, during which a ceasefire would need to be in place to allow for voting and verification. Additional negotiations would be required to determine troop withdrawal distances and the deployment locations of international forces.
“People must be able to decide whether this ending suits them or not,” he said.
The proposal also calls for Russian forces to withdraw from the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, alongside the deployment of international peacekeepers along the contact line to monitor compliance.
Zelenskyy stressed that international oversight is essential, citing Russia’s repeated violations of past agreements. “There is no trust in Russia,” he said. “The contact line must be guaranteed by international forces so that no one enters under any pretext—neither disguised troops nor so-called ‘little green men.’”
Ukraine has previously entered ceasefire agreements with Russia following Moscow’s initial aggression in 2014 and its annexation of Crimea. The Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015 called for a ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons and restoration of Ukrainian control over its borders—commitments Kyiv says Russia failed to uphold.
Those accords ultimately collapsed, paving the way for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
