Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukrainian, British and European officials are close to finalising a streamlined alternative to the US peace proposal to end Russia’s war that includes security guarantees for the country.
However, a crucial part of those guarantees remained undecided, he said, while – on the issue of territory – no compromise with Washington had been reached, suggesting a peace deal was far off.
“A compromise has not yet been found” with the Americans on territory, the Ukrainian president said after two hours of talks at 10 Downing Street on Monday with UK prime minister Keir Starmer, France’s president Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Under Ukrainian and international law, he added: “We have no right to give anything away.”
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Mr Zelenskiy said progress had been made, though, with the original 28-point US peace plan. This had initially included several points which Ukraine would be unwilling to accept but was now reduced to 20 points, while earlier terms he described as unfavourable had been removed.
The president said he expected Ukrainian and European national security advisers to have the revised plan ready around Tuesday evening to send back to the US for consideration.
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The main focus of Monday’s talks, he said, had been around security guarantees for his war-weary country. Those guarantees from Europe, he said, were “basically ready”.
However, European allies had not said how they would guarantee Ukraine’s security in the event of a renewed Russian invasion, he added.
Mr Zelenskiy said the “strongest” guarantees Ukraine could get would be from the US. If they were “legally binding” and voted through by the US Congress then Kyiv could be close to a deal, he suggested.
He said the US side appeared open to going down that route.
US president Donald Trump had suggested on Sunday that Mr Zelenskiy was holding up a deal and had not even “read” the latest plan.
In advance of the talks, Mr Merz had said he was “sceptical about some of the documents coming from the US side”, adding: “This could be a decisive time for all of us.”
Mr Zelenskiy said the issue of Ukraine’s economic recovery and reconstruction had also been discussed at length with his British and European counterparts earlier on Monday.
European leaders used the meeting to raise the financial pressure on Moscow as they declared “positive progress” in plans to use frozen Russian sovereign assets.
Mr Starmer said Britain was prepared to join the EU in using these assets to backstop loans to Ukraine, as he warned the peace talks had reached a “critical stage”.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who took part in a follow-up call, said: “We all know what is at stake and we know we don’t have any more time to lose.”
She said plans to use Russian sovereign assets for a “reparations loan” to Ukraine would “increase the cost of war for Russia”.
Downing Street said there had been “positive progress made to use immobilised Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s reconstruction”.
British officials said the UK was also looking to use about £8 billion (€9 billion) of frozen Russian sovereign assets it holds to support Ukraine and that Mr Starmer was working with partners in the EU on a joint response.
“The prime minister will update president Zelenskiy on our wider support,” the officials had said before the meeting. “That includes through the use of the value of immobilised Russian sovereign assets. We hope to see movement on that soon.”
However, the UK will not use about £28 billion of assets from sanctioned Russian individuals that are frozen in the UK, only those belonging to the government in Moscow, said people familiar with the matter.
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The British proposal is similar to the Brussels plan to use frozen Russian sovereign assets to backstop up to €210 billion in loans to Ukraine. British officials said the UK would “not go it alone”.
Mr Merz was expected to have updated his counterparts on Belgium’s opposition to EU plans to use the frozen assets after meeting Bart De Wever, the Belgian prime minister. Mr De Wever will meet Mr Starmer in London on Friday.
European leaders will debate the initiative on assets at a summit on December 18th-19th.
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
