US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the talks in Geneva on President Donald Trump’s proposal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine were the “most productive and meaningful meeting" since the Trump administration came to power.”
Rubio made the remark after meeting senior Ukrainian envoys on Sunday. He told journalists that a second round of discussions would take place later on Sunday night.
“This will ultimately have to be signed off by our presidents, although I feel very comfortable about that happening given the progress we’ve made,” said Rubio, who was accompanied by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
He added that Russia would also have to approve the final peace plan.
The head of the Ukrainian delegation, presidential chief of staff Andrii Yermak, also confirmed that an initial session had wrapped up and that another meeting was expected shortly.
“I want to confirm that we had a very productive first session with the distinguished American delegation. We have made very good progress and are moving forward to a just and lasting peace,” he said.
“Very soon today the second meeting will take place, where we will continue to work on joint proposals with the engagement of our European partners. Final decisions will be taken by our Presidents.”
However, tensions surfaced during the talks after President Donald Trump slammed Ukraine for showing a lack of “gratitude” for Washington’s support against Russia’s invasion.
'Zero gratitude for out efforts'
The US President, who is known for blowing hot and cold on Ukraine, earlier said on his Truth Social platform that Ukraine's leadership "EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS," referring to his plan to end the nearly four-year conflict, which adhered to some of Moscow's demands.
In an attempt to appease Trump after the outburst, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took to X a few hours later in a conciliatory tone.
“Ukraine is grateful to the United States, to every American heart, and personally to President Trump for the assistance that -- starting with the Javelins -- has been saving Ukrainian lives,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Starmer and Trump phone call
Meanwhile, Downing Street said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke with Trump by phone, with both leaders agreeing that “we all must work together at this critical moment”.
A spokesperson said, “The leaders discussed various aspects of the high level discussions taking place in Geneva today on the US peace plan for Ukraine. They agreed that we all must work together at this critical moment to bring about a just and lasting peace.”
As other Western leaders weighed in on the plan, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said there was no need for a fully separate counterproposal to the controversial US blueprint, which requires Ukraine to cede territory, reduce its army, and pledge never to join NATO.
However, she noted that several issues need further discussion.
“I don't think the issue is working on a complete counterproposal. There are many points that are acceptable in the plan we're reading,” Meloni told reporters at a G20 summit in Johannesburg.
“It makes more sense to work on the existing proposal and focus on the truly crucial issues”, she said.
Ukraine and allies have ruled out territorial concessions
In Geneva, US and Ukrainian top officials were busy making changes to the controversial 28-point draft plan, with Ukraine saying the latest version included some of its talking points.
"The current version of the document, although still in the final stages of approval, already reflects most of Ukraine's key priorities," negotiator Rustem Umerov, who is also the secretary of Ukraine's security council, said.
The initial US blueprint accommodated some of Moscow’s hardline demands and required Kyiv to cede territory, reduce its army, and stay out of NATO.
It also offered only vague security guarantees and proposed using frozen Russian assets to rebuild war-torn Ukraine.
The Ukrainian President said his country could face a stark choice between standing up for its sovereign rights and preserving the American support it needs.
Before convening with US officials, Andrii Yermak and his team also met with national security advisers from the UK, France and Germany. The allies have rallied around Kyiv in a push to revise the plan, which is seen as favoring Moscow.
Speaking before Sunday’s talks, Alice Rufo, France’s minister delegate at the Defense Ministry, told broadcaster France Info that key points of discussion would include the plan’s restrictions on the Ukrainian army, which she described as “a limitation on its sovereignty.”
“Ukraine must be able to defend itself,” she said. “Russia wants war and waged war many times in fact over the past years.”
On Sunday, Zelensky said that there was an understanding the US would take into account “a number of elements” in a peace deal that are important for Ukraine, but did not elaborate further.
“There have already been brief reports from the team about the results of the first meetings and conversations,” he said.
“There is now an understanding that the American proposals may take into account a number of elements based on the Ukrainian vision and are critically important for Ukraine’s national interests.”
Previously, Trump said the U.S. proposal was not his “final offer.”
Trump didn’t explain what he meant by the plan not being his final offer and the White House didn’t respond to a request for clarification.
Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also reached out to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to brief him on the diplomatic efforts to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia.
Possibility for additional talks
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he would hold a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. He said he would talk to the Russian leader about reviving a previous deal from July 2022 that allowed Ukraine to safely ship exports of grain via the Black Sea.
The agreement stayed in place until the following year, when Putin refused to extend it, saying that a parallel agreement promising to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer hadn’t been honored.
Erdogan's new diplomatic push comes just days after he met with Zelenskyy in Ankara.
Trump has given Ukraine until November 27, when the US celebrates Thanksgiving, to approve it, but also signalled there may be some flexibility around the deadline.
Since the start of his second term, US President Donald Trump's position on the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically back and forth.
The Republican billionaire, who initially promised to end the war in "24 hours", went from admiring Russian President Putin and calling Zelensky a "dictator," to slapping Moscow with major sanctions and hinting at Ukraine taking its land back.
