On Tuesday, Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer chaired a meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing, a loose grouping of Ukraine’s allies in Europe and beyond who have pledged continued defence support in the event a ceasefire, including tentative talks on a potential peacekeeping force.During the call – which was also joined by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – the leaders agreed to set up a task force with the US to “accelerate” workon the security guarantees that could be offered to Ukraine.The issue of security guarantees is only one of the areas on which Moscow and Kyiv are at odds. On Monday, Zelensky said the “main problem” blocking peace was Putin’s demand for legal recognition of the territory Russia had seized.Moscow has consistently demanded full Ukrainian withdrawal from the whole of the eastern Donbas, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russian forces also control the Crimean peninsula – which Russia annexed in 2014 – and large parts of two other regions, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.After weeks in which diplomacy appeared to have stalled, there has been a flurry of activity since the US-backed plan was leaked.The original draft included Ukraine agreeing to cede areas it continues to control, pledging not to join Nato and significantly cutting the size of its armed forces – elements which seemed to reflect key Kremlin demands.While Putin said the original draft could form the “basis” for a deal, Zelensky responded by saying Ukraine faced a choice between retaining the US as a partner and its “dignity”.
European leaders pushed back on several elements.On the eve of talks over the plan in Geneva on Sunday between American, European and Ukrainian officials, Rubio was forced to publicly insist it was “authored by the US” after a group of senators claimed he had told them it was effectively a Russian draft, not the White House’s position.Since then, both the US and Ukraine have hailed progress on the draft, with Zelensky saying it represented “the right approach” after securing changes.While Trump had originally pushed for Ukraine to accept the plan swiftly, the president told reporters on Tuesday that the original version “was just a map”, adding: “That was not a plan, it was a concept.”Also on Tuesday, Bloombergpublisheda transcript of what it said was a call on 14 October between Trump’s diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide.Asked about the transcript – in which Witkoff reportedly discussed how the Kremlin should approach Trump, and said Ukraine would have to give up land to secure a peace deal – Trump told reporters it represented a “very standard form of negotiations”. BBC News has not independently verified the reported leaked call. Meanwhile, the fighting continues. Both Russia and Ukraine said strikes had been carried out on Tuesday night in Zaporizhzhia.Ukraine’s regional head there, Ivan Federov, said at least seven people had been injured, while Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed governor, reported that Kyiv had hit energy grids in areas it controls, leaving up to 40,000 people without electricity.Tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, and millions of people have fled their homes since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
