THE FUSE

Volodymyr Zelensky will speak to Donald Trump after the US presented Ukraine with a draft peace plan to end the war with Russia.

The plan was reportedly drafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and his Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev, without Ukraine's involvement.

In a statement, Zelensky's office said the US believed the draft plan could "help reinvigorate diplomacy" and added Ukraine had "agreed to work on the plan's provisions in a way that would bring about a just end to the war".

Kyiv supported "all substantive proposals capable of bringing genuine peace closer," the statement said.

The Ukrainians did not share any details of what the proposal entails - although according to sources quoted by Axios, the Financial Times and Reuters it includes plans for Kyiv to give up areas of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine that it still controls, to cut significantly the size of its army, and to forego many of its weapons.

If confirmed, these demands would be heavily slanted towards Moscow's interest - explaining Kyiv's lukewarm reaction to the draft.

The White House said Trump had grown "frustrated" with both Russia and Ukraine "for their refusal to commit to a peace agreement" and his team had been working on a "detailed and acceptable" peace plan.

Yet Moscow downplayed the significance of the plan, which is rumoured to include 28 points. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that while there had been "contacts" with the US there was "no process that could be called 'consultations'".

The statement from Zelensky's office came after a meeting between the Ukrainian president and senior US military figures in Kyiv, including US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, army chief of staff Gen Randy George and top US army commander in Europe Gen Chris Donahue.

Neither Ukraine nor its European partners were involved in drafting the new plan, and on Thursday European foreign ministers warned against coming up with proposals without consulting Kyiv or Brussels.

"For any plan to work, it needs Ukrainians and Europeans on board," said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

A senior US official told the BBC that special envoy Steve Witkoff had received input from both the Ukrainians and the Russians "on what terms are acceptable to them to end the war".

"Both sides will have to make concessions, not just Ukraine," the official said.

Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, warned any peace deal would have to address the "root causes of the conflict" - a phrase which Moscow has used as shorthand for a series of maximalist demands which, to Ukraine, are tantamount to surrender.

Ukrainian MP Lisa Yasko told the BBC that Ukraine had "not been consulted". She said "it looks like someone wants to decide things for us. And that's very painful for most of us Ukrainians."

Since starting his second term earlier this year, Trump has launched into various initiatives aimed at ending the war in Ukraine - including a bilateral summit with Putin in Alaska, several visits by his envoy Witkoff to Moscow and rounds of talks with Zelensky and other Western leaders.

But as the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine nears, the two sides remain deeply at odds over how to end the conflict.

While Ukraine has become adept at targeting Russian military infrastructure and energy facilities with long-range drones, Moscow's attacks on Ukrainian targets continue unabated.

Earlier this week at least 26 people were in a Russian missile and drone attack on blocks of flats in Ukraine's western city of Ternopil. More than people were still missing at the site on Thursday.