US military team visits Kiev amid discussions to end the Russia-Ukraine war

Senior Pentagon officials have arrived in Ukraine to “discuss efforts to end the war” with Russia, the US military says. US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll held talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and was to see President Volodymyr Zelensky later.

Reports had surfaced on Wednesday that the US and Russia had prepared a new proposed framework to end the war, requiring major concessions from Ukraine including giving up territory and dramatically shrinking its military.

The White House said President Donald Trump had grown “frustrated” with both Russia and Ukraine “for their refusal to commit to a peace agreement” and his team had been working on a “detailed and acceptable” peace plan.

A senior US official confirmed that special envoy Steve Witkoff had been “quietly working” on a plan and that he had received input from both the Ukrainians and the Russians “on what terms are acceptable to them to end the war”. “Both sides will have to make concessions, not just Ukraine,” the official said.

Moscow has not confirmed or denied that a plan was worked out. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “contacts” had taken place with the US, but no “consultations or negotiations” were happening.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Russia. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned that for any plan to work, it would need to have Ukrainians and their European allies on board, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said “the Ukrainians do not want any form of capitulation”.

There was no mention of the proposed framework when the US army secretary arrived in Kyiv late on Wednesday. Army spokesman Col David Butler said only that Driscoll and his team were there “on behalf of the [Trump] administration on a fact-finding mission to meet Ukrainian officials and discuss efforts to end the war”.

After talks with the US army secretary on Wednesday, Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal posted on X: “We focused on the next steps for implementing the historic defense agreements reached by President Zelensky and President Trump.”

Kyiv and its Western allies, including the US, have been calling for an immediate ceasefire along the vast front line but Moscow has ruled that out, repeating demands that Ukraine says amount to its de facto capitulation.

Many attempts have been made to get to a deal that both Russia and Ukraine can agree to, but none so far have come to fruition. It will be a difficult road to changing that.