Us And Russia To Meet About Ukraine As Europe Races To Influence Deal

American and Russian officials will meet in the coming days to hammer out the details of a peace agreement, after U.S. advisers huddle this weekend with top Ukrainian aides.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff will meet in Geneva with President Volodmyr Zelenskyy’s advisers on Sunday, according to a U.S. official and two European officials, before speaking with the Russians.

The rapid-fire diplomacy comes after President Donald Trump dispatched Driscoll to Kyiv this week to deliver a 28-point peace plan that would require significant concessions from Ukraine. It would cap the size of the Ukrainian army, ban the country from joining NATO and hand over land to Russia that it has not occupied in its four-year invasion of Ukraine. Zelenksyy said the proposal leaves Kyiv with a difficult choice, “either losing its dignity or … losing a key partner.”

Several countries, including the U.K., are considering sending representatives to Geneva to meet with the Americans and Ukrainians, according to another European diplomat, who like others, was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations. National security advisers from France, Germany and Italy may also participate.

The next round of conversations will “iron out the last portions the Ukrainians want to work through” before a potential meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy, the U.S. official said. Trump has given Ukraine until Nov. 24 to sign on to its peace plan or risk losing American intelligence and military support, a quick timeline that Europe is racing to influence.

The White House and the Pentagon didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Driscoll, who met with Zelenksyy, told a group of European ambassadors afterward that the continent couldn’t match the Russian defense industry’s output, so Ukraine won’t be able to claw back territory. The time for a settlement had arrived, he said, according to one diplomat, a European official in the room and a person familiar with the meeting. Some of Driscoll’s conversation, including his message about industrial capacity, has not been previously reported.

“No deal is perfect, but it must be done sooner rather than later,” Driscoll said, according to the European official at the meeting. U.S. armed forces “love” Ukraine and stand by its military, Driscoll said, but “the honest U.S. military assessment is that Ukraine is in a very bad position and now is the best time for peace.”

Julie Davis, charge d’affaires for the U.S. Embassy to Ukraine, told the group that Ukraine’s success is important to the U.S., according to the official in the meeting. But Kyiv cannot maintain its position in the years to come if it wants to be a sovereign nation with a viable economy and security guarantees, she said, pointing to its loss of territory and manpower.

Driscoll pushed back at the suggestion that the proposal came without Ukrainian input, the European official present said. U.S. security assurances will include Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and success, he told the group. He also said the U.S. will build a high-tech demilitarized zone on the front line, the official said. When asked if Russia agreed to the proposal, he told the ambassadors in Kyiv that “they would not be here if they did not believe a deal could be reached.”

Driscoll’s spokesperson, Army Col. Dave Butler, said the Army chief “discussed U.S. intentions, the urgency and momentum we’ve achieved. It was a positive exchange.”

European leaders gathered at the G20 summit in South Africa this weekend where they strategized on next steps. Many considered the U.S. proposal a non-starter.

“We take this opportunity to underline the strength of our continued support to Ukraine,” they said in a joint statement from the EU and 12 countries at the summit. “We will continue to coordinate closely with Ukraine and the U.S. over the coming days.”

Leaders from 27 EU countries will gather in Angola on Monday to hammer out their own counterproposal for peace, European Council President António Costa announced Saturday on X.

Driscoll was initially scheduled to fly to London next to meet with European allies, but that was scrapped after NATO allies criticized the proposal, according to two of the European diplomats.

Ukrainian security adviser Rustem Umerov confirmed the upcoming meetings in Geneva on Telegram. “We are launching consultations between senior officials of Ukraine and the United States regarding possible parameters of a future peace agreement,” he wrote.

House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) lambasted the proposal. “This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am highly skeptical it will achieve peace,” he said in a Friday statement.

Democrats were also doubtful. Senate Foreign Relations Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said at the Halifax International Security Forum Friday that the U.S. proposal “seems to me like a plan that's been written by Russia about Ukraine, and it was done without our European partners."