Ukraine’s allies will seek to “strengthen” a US plan to end the war with Russia when they meet at the G20 summit in South Africa, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The summit begins a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Ukraine faced “one of the most difficult moments in our history” over pressure to accept the plan – leaked details of which have been seen as favourable to Moscow.
Zelensky held phone talks with Sir Keir and the leaders of France and Germany on Friday. Afterwards, the PM said Ukraine’s “friends and partners” remained committed to securing a “lasting peace once and for all”.
Neither US President Donald Trump nor Russian President Vladimir Putin are attending the G20.
The widely leaked US peace plan includes proposals that Kyiv had previously ruled out, including ceding eastern areas it currently controls.
Washington has been pressing Kyiv to accept and sent senior Pentagon officials to the Ukraine earlier this week to discuss the proposals.
But there is nervousness in Europe over what has been perceived as a set of terms heavily slanted in Moscow’s favour. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called the prospect of it being adopted a “very dangerous moment”.
According to news agency Reuters, she told reporters: “We all want this war to end, but how it ends matters. Russia has no legal right whatsoever to any concessions from the country it invaded, ultimately the terms of any agreement are for Ukraine to decide.”
Ahead of the talks at the G20, Sir Keir said gathered leaders would “discuss the current proposal on the table, and in support of President Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”.
He continued: “Not a day has passed in this war where Ukraine hasn’t called for Russia to end its illegal invasion, roll back its tanks and lay down its guns.
“Ukraine has been ready to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage.
“That is why we must all work together, with both the US and Ukraine, to secure a just and lasting peace once and for all.”
As part of the White House’s plan, Ukraine would be obliged to cut the size of its army and pledge not to join the Nato military alliance, a long-held Kremlin demand.
Trump warned on Friday that Ukraine would lose more territory to Russia “in a short amount of time” and that Zelensky “is going to have to approve” the plan.
The US president said he had given Ukraine until Thursday to agree to the plan – Thanksgiving in the US – which he described as an “appropriate” deadline.
Russian troops have been making slow advances along the vast front line, despite reported heavy losses.
Ukraine relies on deliveries of US-manufactured advances weaponry to arms its forces, including air defence systems.
Kyiv has also been dependent on intelligence provided by Washington since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
US Vice-President JD Vance said on Friday that it was a “fantasy that if we just give more money, more weapons, or more sanctions, victory is at hand”.
During a meeting with his security cabinet on Friday, Putin confirmed the US had presented its proposed peace plan, and said it could be the “basis” for a settlement – though added detailed talks on its terms had not yet been held in the Kremlin.
He said Russia was willing to “show flexibility” but was also prepared to fight on.
In a 10-minute address in front of the presidential office in Kyiv, Zelensky warned that Ukraine would face “a lot of pressure… to weaken us, to divide us”.
“We’re not making loud statements,” he went on, “we’ll be calmly working with America and all the partners… offering alternatives” to the proposed peace plan.
Zelensky has had to strike a careful balance between Kyiv’s interests and maintaining cordial ties with Trump, with whom he had a public falling out with at the White House earlier this year and who has appeared at times frustrated at the lack of progress in peace talks.
His reaction to the US plan has been measuredly worded – though he did admit on Friday that Ukraine “might face a very difficult choice: either losing dignity, or risk losing a key partner”.
The White House has pushed back on claims that Ukraine was frozen out of the drafting of the proposal.
An unnamed US official told CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner, that the plan was drawn up “immediately” following discussions with Ukraine’s top security official Rustem Umerov, who agreed to the majority of it.
The leaked draft proposes Ukrainian troops’ withdrawal from the part of the eastern Donetsk region that they currently control, giving Russia de facto control of Donetsk, as well as the neighbouring Luhansk region and the southern Crimea peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014.
Russia currently controls around 20% of Ukrainian territory.
Kyiv would receive “reliable security guarantees”, the plan says, though no details have been given.
The document says “it is expected” that Russia will not invade its neighbours and that Nato will not expand further.
The draft also suggests Russia will be “reintegrated into the global economy”, through the lifting of sanctions and by inviting Russia to rejoin the G7 group of the world’s most powerful countries – making it the G8 again.
