Here's what we covered today
• US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his special envoy Steve Witkoff will be going to Moscow next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin – and his son-in-law Jared Kushner might go with him.
• At the same time, Trump said, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will meet with the Ukrainians, after which the US president hopes to meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – but not until a deal is more finalized. Ukraine says Driscoll is expected in Kyiv “later this week.”
• Progress is being made on a draft proposal to end the war, but at least three crucial sticking points remain, according to a Ukrainian source.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated that Moscow could reject an amended US plan if its terms are “fundamentally different” to the understanding reached during the Trump-Putin summit a few months ago.
Our live coverage of efforts to forge a Ukraine war peace deal has wrapped for the day. You can learn about Tuesday’s developments by scrolling through the posts below.
Trump says Kushner might meet with Putin next week as he downplays the idea of a deadline for a peace deal
President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed away from imposing any kind of deadline for Russia and Ukraine to reach a peace deal as he revealed that his son-in-law Jared Kushner might travel with special envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow for negotiations next week.
“I’d like to see it end, and we won’t know for a little while, but well, we’re making progress,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on his way to Florida.
Trump had previously set a Thursday deadline for Ukraine to accept a proposed peace plan, though he walked that back Tuesday. Asked whether he was imposing a new deadline, Trump said: “You know what the deadline for me is? When it’s over.”
Trump suggested some of the sticking points center on territory, saying, “trying to clean up the border, you can’t go through the middle of the house. You can’t go through the middle of a highway. So, they’re trying to work something, it’s a complicated process.”
Trump said Witkoff is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, adding, “maybe with Jared.”
“I’m not sure about Jared going, but he’s involved in the process, smart guy. And they’re going to be meeting with President Putin, I believe next week in Moscow,” Trump said.
Does the US peace proposal play into Putin's hands?
After the shock and confusion surrounding the leak of a 28-point peace plan containing some of Russia’s most maximalist demands, and the marathon weekend talks to revise them, the US and Ukraine struck a similarly cautious, yet hopeful tone Tuesday.
“There are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out,” wrote White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on X.
“Our delegations reached a common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva,” was the assessment of lead Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov.
In other words, there’s more work to be done – and likely on the most important parts of the deal. But getting the US and Ukraine to agree is not the most difficult part of this.
Getting Russia to sign onto any compromises, when it has spent the past few days signaling it will reject any revised deal outright, seems at this stage, almost impossible. And yet, Russia does want the US to keep trying.
Read more about Moscow’s approach to the latest round of peace negotiations here.
Zelensky should prioritize EU membership over NATO for now, former commander says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should put aside aspirations to join NATO for now and focus on becoming a member of the European Union, a former commander of the military alliance has said.
Asked by CNN if there was a chance that Ukraine would join the alliance, retired Admiral James Stavridis, formerly NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, said: “Eventually, I think they will be … I don’t think it’s going to take 100 years.”
But he suggested that Kyiv should focus on other priorities first. “What I would focus on if I were team Zelensky is getting into the European Union. NATO will come along sooner rather than later,” Stavridis said.
Earlier today, former CIA director Leon Panetta said that Ukraine should “probably” indicate that it wasn’t going to seek NATO membership in order to further the prospect of a peace deal.
The initial US-backed proposal said Ukraine should abandon its ambition to join NATO, among other demands.
Speaking about the idea of Ukraine having to make territorial concessions to Russia in order to stop Moscow’s war, Stavridis said, “it’s not a perfect outcome, but it is a better one than Putin running the table and conquering Ukraine.”
Borders "must not be changed by force," Ukraine's allies stress
Leaders of the Coalition of the Willing have expressed support for “President (Donald) Trump’s efforts to put an end to the war” and reiterated their stance that Ukraine’s borders “must not be changed by force.”
In a statement following the conclusion of their meeting on Tuesday, they also “underlined that any solution must fully involve Ukraine, preserve its sovereignty, be in line with the principles of the United Nations Charter, and guarantee [Ukraine’s] long-term security.”
The meeting was co-chaired by the leaders of the UK, France and Germany and attended virtually by world leaders including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The coalition “welcomed the assurances that issues pertaining to European and NATO interests will be discussed separately, with the full involvement of European partners and NATO allies” and agreed that a decision on financing for Ukraine, including by using immobilized Russian assets, would “be critical.”
It also reiterated that peace would need to be supported by “robust and credible security guarantees for Ukraine,” saying its leaders had “agreed with Secretary Rubio to accelerate joint work with the United States to take forward the planning” on such guarantees.
Top US army official expected in Kyiv "later this week," Ukraine says
US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is expected to travel to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv later this week to continue peace talks, Ukraine’s Presidential Office Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said Tuesday following a call with the US official.
A further meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky would be “thoroughly and promptly prepared on our side,” according to Yermak.
As we reported earlier, Trump said today that he hoped to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky after Driscoll’s meeting in Ukraine — but not until the proposal to end the war is more finalized.
“Ukraine has never been and will never be an obstacle to peace. We are grateful to the United States for all its support,” Yermak added.
Principles of US proposal can be developed into "deeper agreements," Zelensky says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes the “principles” of the US-backed peace proposal aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine “can be developed into deeper agreements.”
Ukraine’s negotiating team continued to make progress on the wording of the proposal on Tuesday, according to Zelensky.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president said he had a “very substantive conversation” with the group of Ukraine’s allies known as the “Coalition of the Willing.”
“The extremely important message that unites us all is that we must coordinate our diplomacy in a very substantive manner, taking into account the interests of our partners if a particular step affects them,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine is now “counting on further active cooperation with the American side and with President Trump,” he added. “Much depends on America, because it is American strength that Russia takes into account the most.”
"Russia's war against Ukraine hasn't ended yet," Zelensky reminds allies
Amid the flurry of diplomatic talks aimed at ending the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Kyiv’s partners to remember that “Russia’s war against Ukraine hasn’t ended yet.”
“Every day, Russia kills our people on the front lines and attacks our cities and energy infrastructure. So, while diplomatic efforts to end this war continue, it is crucial that our partners don’t forget that Ukraine still needs sufficient defense support, security support, and support for our resilience,” he said in a post on X Tuesday.
At least seven people were killed in Russian overnight strikes on Kyiv and at least 13 others were injured – including a child – according to local authorities. Moldova said six drones crossed into its airspace during the overnight strikes, and NATO scrambled fighter jets after at least one Russian drone entered neighboring Romania’s airspace.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X on Tuesday that Russia’s moves were “yet another reminder that Ukraine’s security is Europe’s security.”
She added that Coalition of the Willing partners would continue to put pressure on Russia “until there is a genuine willingness to engage on a credible path toward peace.”
Following Tuesday’s meeting of the coalition, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that while Russia was “pretending it wanted peace, the last hours were marked by new strikes against civilian, in particular energy, infrastructure and against Ukrainian civilians, and so on the ground the reality is completely the opposite of a desire for peace.”
Ukraine should "probably" indicate that it won't join NATO, former CIA director says
Ukraine should “probably” indicate that it’s not going to seek NATO membership in order to further the prospect of a peace deal, according to former CIA director and former defense secretary Leon Panetta.
“NATO obviously has its own rules that apply to NATO, and to basically say that NATO ought not to seek additional members I think is difficult to implement here,” he told CNN on Tuesday.
The initial US-backed proposal, first reported last week by Axios, said Ukraine should abandon its ambition to join NATO, among other demands. A Ukrainian source with direct knowledge of the talks said this demand was unacceptable.
“This is a nuanced issue that I think you can find a way to deal with that could be acceptable,” Panetta said, while adding that peace should not be achieved “through surrender.”
But, he said of the NATO issue, “what it means is that it’s going to be difficult to get Russia now to agree to these changes, and so we’re a long way from nailing any kind of peace negotiation down.”
Trump says he’s directed Witkoff to meet with Putin in Moscow
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he’s directed special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, with “only a few remaining points of disagreement” between the Russians and the Ukrainians.
At the same time, Trump said, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will meet with the Ukrainians, after which the president hopes to meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — but not until a deal is more finalized.
“I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelensky and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He touted the “tremendous progress” his team has made over the last week, noting, “the original 28-Point Peace Plan, which was drafted by the United States, has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides, and there are only a few remaining points of disagreement.”
Amid flurry of diplomacy, could the latest peace talks actually end the Ukraine war?
Meetings in Switzerland. Talks in the United Arab Emirates. A possible Ukrainian presidential visit to the United States.
And yet, despite the recent flurry of diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine and officials touting promising developments, more often than not in off-the-record briefings, it’s hard to say if an agreement is actually close to the finish line. The core demands of each side remain the same.
The Trump administration is pushing hard to get a landmark agreement, but Russian President Vladimir Putin and his delegates have not given any indication that they want the years-long conflict to end in compromise.
Now, a US official has briefed reporters in a closed group that Ukraine agreed to a peace proposal – which may or may not be attractive to Russia – even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “much work still lies ahead.”
What we do know from the first round of draft deals is that the Kremlin is still pushing its maximalist aims to demilitarize Ukraine, bar its entry into NATO and formally claim some of its territory. Ukraine still wants a viable pathway to NATO membership and wants to avoid ceding territory. The country and its European allies are publicly adamant that peace cannot mean capitulation to Russia.
Between those entrenched red lines, is there any space for negotiation? Read more about latest talks here.
Macron says European-led "reassurance force" will include US "involvement"
French President Emmanuel Macron announced for the first time on Tuesday that European-led security guarantees for Kyiv would involve the US.
Speaking after a virtual “Coalition of the Willing” meeting, attended by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and other world leaders including, for the first time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Macron said that a working group would start writing up from Wednesday what allies will contribute for a reassurance force to deploy to Ukraine after a ceasefire is established.
Rubio’s attendance marks the first time a US representative has participated in a Coalition of the Willing meeting, something an Elysee source said in a briefing was important, adding that the group would soon rebrand as the “peace coalition.”
The source said that while the exact contributions from Ukrainian allies to a reassurance force had not yet been defined, the US involvement would likely act as a “backstop” to other allied forces which would be deployed away from frontline combat zones. France and the UK have been at the forefront of imagining what such a deployment would look like.
Macron announced earlier that European-led security guarantees for Ukraine would involve Turkish troops and naval forces in addition to British and French soldiers.
“There can’t be a ceasefire nor peace if the Ukrainians cannot trust that the Russians won’t invade again,” the source said.
The Elysee source said that Rubio on the call had understood the importance of Ukraine making its own decisions when it came to some areas of the proposed peace negotiations, adding that the Americans would now take the revised peace plan back to the Russians.
The Elysee source also said “good progress” had been made in Tuesday’s meeting regarding the use of frozen Russian assets in Europe.
While a final decision on their use – which has split Europe – will be taken at December’s European Council summit, the source said that using the funds would show to Kyiv and to Moscow that Ukraine can hold out.
Trump’s "drone guy" is key to the US effort to end the Ukraine war. Here's why
US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was at the White House earlier this month preparing for a trip to Kyiv to discuss drone technology when he received an unexpected assignment from President Donald Trump: push Ukraine to come back to the table for peace talks with the Russia – and do it fast.
The 38-year-old Army veteran and close friend of Vice President JD Vance, his classmate at Yale Law School, had no prior diplomatic experience.
But an “Army-to-Army” discussion seemed promising, said one person familiar with the discussions: The Ukrainians know and trust US Army officials, who have trained and equipped their forces for more than a decade.
Trump also likes Driscoll and refers to him as the “drone guy,” people familiar with their dynamic said, a nod to Driscoll’s extensive work on developing new drone technology for the Army.
Driscoll was excited to take on the challenge, one of the sources said. And after a weeklong diplomatic blitz across three countries, he appears poised to return home with a partial victory.
Read more about that victory and Driscoll’s involvement here.
Zelensky floats idea of European presence at potential Trump meeting
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has floated the idea that Kyiv’s European allies could join a potential meeting with US President Donald Trump intended to finalise a proposal to end the war in Ukraine.
As we reported earlier, the Ukrainian leader could visit the United States in the next few days to finalize a peace proposal with Trump, according to Ukraine’s national security chief Rustem Umerov.
Talks between top US and Ukrainian officials in Geneva, Switzerland, over the weekend yielded a “good result,” Zelensky said.
“Ukraine has the framework developed by our teams in Geneva. That framework is on the table, and we’re ready to move forward together – with the United States of America, with personal engagement of President Trump, and with Europe,” he added.
White House’s optimism is intended to put maximum pressure on Kyiv and Moscow, sources say
The White House’s optimistic rhetoric on Ukraine talks this week is by design, sources familiar said, arguing that top officials’ public comments around a fluid 19-point plan are intended to put maximum pressure on Kyiv and Moscow to commit to the negotiations.
The Trump administration is eager to use the momentum of talks with Ukrainian and Russian officials to try and force both Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin to the table on an initial ceasefire deal, those sources said. And the strategy around the renewed air of confidence is to publicly raise the stakes, one of the sources said, to make it harder for either side to walk away from the talks.
“I think we’re getting very close to a deal,” President Donald Trump said Tuesday, echoing positive projections from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
However, administration officials recognize that much still needs to be worked out. While the sources said the current state of talks — specifically with the Ukrainians in Geneva on Sunday — culminated in an agreement on the broad strokes of the pared-back, 19-point plan, major sticking points remain. The sources would not clarify the specific areas of disagreement that still need to be negotiated in the plan, which has evolved from an initial 28-point version.
The key question remains whether Russia is willing to make substantial concessions beyond those in that initial proposal, which was widely seen as favorable to Moscow by US lawmakers, Ukraine and European allies.
US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who is in Abu Dhabi meeting with Russian officials, has been tasked with hammering out those specifics to keep up the momentum and bring both sides closer to the finish line.
No final US-Ukraine deal yet and key differences remain, source tells CNN
Progress is being made between the US and Ukraine on the wording of a new draft proposal to end the war, but substantive differences remain and no final text has been agreed, according to a Ukrainian source with direct knowledge of the talks.
A “consensus” had been reached on most points, the source said, but there are at least three crucial areas where differences remain. On the sensitive issue of whether Ukraine will surrender territory that has been annexed but not yet conquered by Russia, the source said that a decision had not yet been reached. “It would be very wrong to say we have now the version that is accepted by Ukraine,” the source said.
On a proposal for Ukraine to limit the size of its army to 600,000 – the figure envisaged in a 28-point plan leaked last week – the source told CNN that a new number had been floated, but Kyiv wanted further changes before it would be prepared to agree.
And on the issue of Ukraine renouncing its ambition to become a member of NATO, the source told CNN that this demand is unacceptable. Such a concession would set a “bad precedent” that would effectively give Russia a veto on NATO “which it is not even a member of.”
Zelensky "indicating" that he could accept "majority" of US proposal, British PM says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “indicating” that he could accept the “majority” of the US-backed proposal to end the war in Ukraine, according to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Ahead of a virtual “Coalition of the Willing” meeting on Tuesday, Starmer said that “we’re moving in a positive direction – and indications today that in large part, the majority of the text looks as though, Volodymyr is indicating, could be accepted.”
The original proposal was seen as favorable toward Russian interests but Ukraine and Europe have pushed for amendments in recent days.
Zelensky may visit US President Donald Trump in the next few days “to complete final steps and make a deal,” Ukraine’s national security chief said earlier.
The British leader added that more work is needed to ensure that “robust security guarantees” are provided to Ukraine, which Starmer framed as “an important element of the draft US plan.”
“Ukraine is holding the line fearlessly. And it’s the line of their sovereignty and their defense. But it’s also our line as well because this is about European freedom, our values, and our security,” Starmer said.
Ukraine peace talks “at crucial juncture,” France’s Macron says, urging importance of security guarantees
French President Emmanuel Macron said peace talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine are at a “crucial juncture” and urged the importance of “robust security guarantees” for Kyiv.
“Negotiations are getting a new impetus and we should seize this momentum, not because there is reason for alarm — Ukraine is solid, Russia is slow, and Europe is steadfast — but because there is finally a chance to make real progress toward a good peace,” Macron said today at the start of a virtual “coalition of the willing” meeting, attended by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and other world leaders, including those from the UK, Germany, Japan and Australia.
Macron went on to say that “the absolute condition for a good peace is a set of very robust security guarantees and not paper guarantees.”
The initial 28-point plan proposed by the US faced criticism for appearing to favor Russia. But on Sunday, the White House said Ukraine’s key concerns, including security guarantees, were “thoroughly addressed” after “revision and clarifications” were made to the proposal with input from US, Ukrainian and European officials in Geneva over the weekend.
Speaking to French radio station RTL today, Macron said European-led security guarantees for Ukraine would involve Turkish troops in addition to British and French soldiers.
White House says further talks required between US, Russia and Ukraine
The White House said Tuesday further talks are required between Ukraine, Russia and the United States, as it works to reach an agreement to end the war.
“Over the past week, the United States has made tremendous progress towards a peace deal by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the table. There are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X.
Leavitt’s comments echo Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday, who said in Geneva, “The items that remain open are not insurmountable. We just need more time than what we have today.”
Map shows extent of Russian control in key Ukrainian regions
As we await updates from talks held to end the war in Ukraine, let’s take a look at Russian control of some of the country’s key regions.
The map below shows the extent of the occupation so far, from Kherson to Luhansk.
Both countries traded deadly attacks overnight, killing and wounding civilians and damaging infrastructure.
