Ukraine Agrees to Limit Its Armed Forces to 800,000 Troops

Europe decided not to push its own peace plan and to work with the US proposal, “although some parts are unacceptable,” said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Financial Times reports that Ukraine agreed to limit its armed forces to 800,000 troops, citing senior officials close to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Kyiv accepted the peace plan drafted by the administration of US President Donald Trump to resolve the conflict with Russia.

“The Ukrainians agreed to the peace deal,”

an American official told CBS News on condition of anonymity.

The source emphasized that some points of the plan still require refinement.

“Some minor details need to be resolved,”

the official added.

Negotiations Accelerate in Geneva and Abu Dhabi

“We remain very optimistic. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll is optimistic. We hope to get a response from the Russians soon. Everything is moving quickly,”

the source told the US network. According to the official, Driscoll spent several hours on 25 November meeting with Russian representatives across different sessions.

The Ukrainian delegation, led by Chief of Military Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov, is also in Abu Dhabi, conducting negotiations with both American and Russian counterparts, reported Axios. Initially, the heads of Ukrainian and Russian military intelligence were scheduled to meet on another topic, but Driscoll’s visit altered the plan.

Lavrov Clarifies Russia’s Conditions for Accepting US Plan

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the situation will change if Trump’s plan removes the understandings from the Alaska summit. According to Lavrov, the key provisions of the US plan reflect agreements reached in Anchorage during the Russian-American meeting, which Moscow welcomes.

“[But] if the spirit and letter of Anchorage regarding key understandings we recorded are erased, it will, of course, be a fundamentally different situation,”

he added.

Allies Opt to Work With US Proposal

At the same time, Ukraine’s allies decided to work on the existing US peace plan rather than create a new document.

“Regarding the peace agreement text now under discussion in Geneva (...) there is firm consensus that we should work with the existing text. While some parts are unacceptable and others matter greatly, the decision was made not to create an alternative plan,”

Prime Minister Starmer said.

It was also reported that the US administration will ask Moscow to expedite the negotiation process.

“(...) the Trump administration was to ask Moscow to accelerate talks,”

the Financial Times quoted First Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsya.

Kremlin Labels Media Reports on Trump Plan as “Information Frenzy”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov previously described media coverage of Trump’s peace plan as an “information frenzy.”

“There is really a lot of contradictory data being published, contradictory statements, and so on,”

he said. White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt stated that the US hopes to secure Russia’s approval of the peace plan for Ukraine.