Trump’s plan for Ukraine evolves, but hurdles remain; Kallas: ‘Russia must face obligations’

Brussels -From Geneva to Abu Dhabi, via Brussels and Strasbourg. Amid tight talks, video calls, and telephone conversations, Trump’s 28-point plan for ending the conflict in Ukraine evolved rapidly. At the meeting in the UAE between Kyiv’s and Moscow’s secret services, there was already a new draft. The points reduced to 19, some of the US concessions to the Kremlin were gone. The EU has put its foot down and is unlikely to back off from putting its nose into a peace negotiation that concerns it so closely.

“So far we haven’t seen any obligations for Russia,” said Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, on the sidelines of a remote confrontation with the foreign ministers of the 27 member states. After the impromptu EU heads of state and government summit in Angola and the encouraging words of Ursula von der Leyen at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, it was the diplomacy chief who had to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. “Everyone welcomes the US push for peace. We all want this war to end, but also how it ends is important,” Kallas stressed.

 There is a need to distinguish between “the aggressor and the victim,” Kallas insisted. And the plan made public last week fails to do that. On the other hand, just today, Reuters revealed that the 28 points drafted by Trump and Washington’s envoy for Ukraine, Steve Witkoff, take their cue from a Russian document submitted to the US administration in October. A document in which Moscow outlined its conditions for ending the war: the control of Donetsk, the downsizing of the Ukrainian armed forces, a ban on Kyiv’s entry into NATO, and the reintegration of the Russian Federation into the G8.

Speech by von der Leyen at the European Parliament’s plenary debate in Strasbourg on the plan for Ukraine, 26/11/2025 [Credits: European Parliament]

“We still have to move from a situation where Russia pretends to negotiate to a situation where it is forced to negotiate. We are getting there,” Kallas added. The High Representative’s assessment is as follows: “The Russian summer offensive has failed, US and EU sanctions are having a huge impact on the Russian economy, and energy revenues are contracting.” In short, “if Russia were able to conquer Ukraine militarily, it would have already done so.”

The complex negotiation revolves around a few pivotal points, on which the friction is not only between Kyiv and Moscow, but also between Brussels and Washington. First, regarding the integrity of Ukrainian territory: compared to the significant concessions in Witkoff’s text, the EU and Ukraine have insisted that negotiations start from the front line. Then there is the hurdle of the security guarantees for Ukraine, which specifically include discussions on the possible deployment of an international peacekeeping force on the ground, the size of the Ukrainian army, and the dispute over the Russian assets frozen in Europe, part of which Trump had speculated on investing in a separate US-led Ukraine reconstruction facility. Finally, there is the question of international fora: Moscow’s reintegration into the G8, Kyiv’s entry into the EU and NATO.

Von der Leyen clearly stated the EU’s desire: no restrictions on the Ukrainian army, strong security guarantees involving the EU and NATO, and no obstacles to Kyiv joining the European club. The EU leader also decided to forge ahead on the frozen Russian assets, announcing that the Commission is now “ready to present the legal text” as a basis for a loan to Ukraine. 

However, the fact remains that the discussion – the way the plan underpinning the negotiations has been drafted – focuses a lot on Ukraine and little on Russia. “If we want to prevent this war from continuing, then we should limit the Russian army and also its military budget,” Kallas suggested. “The focus should be on the concessions Russia will have to make,” she insisted. Instead, the EU diplomacy chief denounced, “In the draft we have seen, which is obviously not the final one, we have not seen a single concession or obligation from the Russian side.”