Star Metro - Ukraine cornered by US plan heeding Russian demands

US President Donald Trump backs the 28-point surprise plan that would also see Kyiv pledge never to join NATO.

Washington's draft, seen by AFP, appeared to heed to the demands of the Kremlin, whose 2022 invasion has turned into Europe's worst conflict since World War II.

Under the plan, Moscow would not only keep territories that it occupies but get more land currently controlled by Ukraine.

The West would lift sanctions on Russia and Moscow would be invited back into the G8.

The plan would also pile pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky, requiring elections to be held in Ukraine within 100 days -- another key demand being pushed by Moscow, which has repeatedly and openly called for the Ukrainian leader to be toppled.

Zelensky has said he will discuss the plan with Trump in the "coming days" -- so far not saying if Kyiv would agree to any of it.

He has insisted his country needed a "dignified peace".

"With a neighbour like Russia, defending one's own dignity, freedom, and independence is an extremely difficult task," he said Friday.

As Kyiv scrambled about what to do next, a senior lawmaker from Zelensky's party reflected the mood.

"Being fucking mind blown has become our norm," the MP told AFP.

- 'Good plan' -

The European Union has not officially received the US proposal but it would be discussed on the sidelines of the G20 in South Africa, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had not commented but Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister who is close to the Kremlin and Washington, said it was a "decisive moment" and the coming weeks will be "crucial".

Reports that the United States and Russia were secretly working on a plan to end the conflict were leaked earlier this week, but the White House denied that it had prepared it with Moscow.

It said its envoy Steve Witkoff -- who skipped a meeting with Zelensky this week -- and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been "quietly" working with both sides.

"The president supports this plan. It's a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Washington has warned, however, that the document was still in working mode, while Kyiv said it had been presented as a "draft plan".

- 'De facto Russian' -

Under the plan, the United States would recognise Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as well as Moscow-annexed Crimea, as "de facto Russian".

"Ukrainian forces will withdraw from the part of Donetsk Oblast that they currently control," the plan, seen by AFP, envisages.

The Donetsk region has been the epicentre of fighting, with tens of thousands of troops killed on both sides.

The frontline would be frozen in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which are both partly occupied by Moscow.

Russia would be required to give up small pockets of territory it has seized in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Ukraine would receive unspecified "reliable security guarantees" while at the same time commit to cutting the size of its army.

It would also bind Ukraine to "enshrine in its constitution" not to join NATO but calls for European jets to be stationed in neighbouring NATO-member Poland.

And $100 billion of Russia's frozen funds -- sanctioned after its full-scale invasion in February 2022 - would go towards US-led reconstruction efforts, with Europe contributing another $100 billion.

- 'Russia re-integrated' -

Aside for getting to keep its conquered territory, the plan also calls for Moscow, which is under massive Western sanctions for more than three years, to be "re-integrated into the global economy".

Sanctions would be lifted and Moscow could rejoin the G8, which it was expelled from over the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Trump's sympathies have flipped repeatedly between Moscow and Kyiv since he returned to the White House earlier this year, with this plan seen as a sign that he has taken on many of Russia's key positions.

The proposal comes with Russian troops grinding forward on the battlefield and with Zelensky facing domestic pressure after a corruption scandal rocked the country's war-hit energy sector.

S.Cloutier--SMC