Ukrainian Armed Forces (Illustrative photo: General Staff)

According to early drafts of the US peace plan, a "neutral demilitarized buffer zone" should be created in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, from which the Ukrainian army must withdraw, but the Russian army must not. About this reports Financial Times, citing unnamed sources.

This zone should be internationally recognized as "territory belonging to the Russian Federation," so the occupying army should not leave it.

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According to several interlocutors familiar with the talks, U.S. administration officials Donald Trump in recent weeks have allegedly forced Ukrainian negotiators to agree to a "territory swap" that they consider an "inevitable part" of any peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow. Trump's special envoy has been particularly insistent on this Steve Witkoff, say anonymous interlocutors.

Ukrainian officials who participated in the talks said the US insists on creating a zone similar to the one that has separated North and South Korea for more than 72 years. However, instead of a lasting peace, the Ukrainian government sees the DMZ as a path to a frozen conflict, where a short pause would allow Russia to regroup for a new offensive.

A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the latest version of the peace plan said there was no call for Russia to withdraw its troops from what would be the eastern border of the demilitarized zone.

It is noted that control over Donbas would mean the capture of a "belt of fortresses" of cities – Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk – that remain a bulwark against Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.

  • on December 5, AFU Chief Syrsky stated that Russia hiding behind negotiations to capture as much territory as possible.
  • on December 8, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has no right to surrender of territories and now the US is allegedly looking for a compromise.
  • on December 11, the WSJ reported that the United States had handed over its plan to the Europeans russia's return to the global economy.