- U.S.
renews effort to end Russia-Ukraine war. - Momentum
building despite unresolved key issues. - Officials
emphasize ongoing diplomatic challenges ahead.
The report was released just hours after Russia launched a
series of attacks on Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, during the night. The
bombings targeted energy infrastructure and city buildings, killing at least
seven people. Three people were murdered and homes were damaged in a Ukrainian
attack on southern Russia, according to authorities.
“Over the past week, the United States has made
tremendous progress towards a peace deal by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to
the table,”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on
X.
Last week, President Donald Trump unveiled his plan to stop
the conflict, which has been going on for almost four years. Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, promptly engaged with American negotiators
after it strongly backed Russia. Fearing for their own future in the face of
Russian aggression, European officials scrambled to guide the negotiations
toward addressing their concerns despite Trump’s apparent neglect of them
during the proposal-writing process.
Senior Ukrainian and American officials reported
that the war-ending negotiations in Geneva on Sunday had made headway.
Peace initiatives are gaining traction and “are clearly
at a crucial juncture,” according to French President Emmanuel Macron on
Tuesday.
“Negotiations are getting a new impetus. And we should
seize this momentum,”
he said during at a video conference meeting of
countries, led by France and the U.K., that could help police any ceasefire
with Russia.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said of the talks:
“I
do think we are moving in a positive direction and indications today that in
large part the majority of the text, (Zelenskyy) is indicating, can be
accepted.”
A U.S. functionary told The Associated Press that U.S. Army
Secretary Dan Driscoll spent several hours in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates,
meeting with Russian officers on Tuesday.
Driscoll, who joined the U.S. concession team less than two
weeks ago, is leading the most recent round of conversations about implicit
terms for a peace deal with Russia.
The U.S. functionary, who spoke on condition of obscurity to
bandy delicate accommodations, said that the Ukrainians were apprehensive of
the meeting and that all sides had expressed a desire to come to an agreement
to end the fighting as soon as possible. Still, he declined to give specifics
regarding the duration of the addresses or the subjects being bandied.
Twenty people were injured in Kyiv, according to Mayor
Vitalii Klitschko. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, it targeted
energy means and military-artificial structure. According to the ministry, the
strikes were a response to Ukrainian airstrikes on Russian mercenary
targets.
90- year-old Liubov Petrivna, who lives in a damaged
structure in the Dniprovskyi area, told the AP that” glass rained
down” on her and” absolutely everything” in her flat was
destroyed by the attack.
Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev described the nighttime Ukrainian
drone strike on the southern Russian district of Krasnodar as “one of the
longest and most massive,” injuring six people.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday that 249
Ukrainian drones were destroyed by Russian air defenses overnight over a number
of Russian areas and the seized Crimean Peninsula.
Ukraine claimed that its drones and dumdums hit an oil
painting refinery, an oil painting harborage, a drone manufacturing point, and
an aviation repair plant.
According to an AP computation, it was the fourth- largest
Ukrainian drone attack on Russia since the war began on February 24,
2022.
How would the plan affect Ukraine’s territorial integrity
and security guarantees?
The plan envisions Ukraine making expansive territorial
concessions to Russia, including feting Crimea, Luhansk, and the entirety of
Donetsk (including areas still under Ukrainian control) as de facto Russian
home.
It proposes inducting the frontal lines in Kherson and
Zaporizhzhia, effectively feting Russian control over these queried areas.
Ukraine’s sovereignty would be” reconfirmed,” but with crucial
territorial negotiations that numerous see as heavily favoring Russia.
Security guarantees would be offered by the U.S., but these
are tentative and vague. Ukraine risks losing these guarantees if it’s supposed
to have attacked Russia, indeed unintentionally. The plan requires Ukraine to
stay out of NATO and limits NATO’s presence by proscribing deployment of colors
on Ukrainian soil.
