A Russian delegation is not expected to take part, but consultations with American counterparts should be expected “very soon,” according to Reuters.
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| Steve Witkoff, Assistant to the US President and Special Envoy for Peace Missions, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a carriage procession at Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, September 17, 2025. © Aaron Chown - WPA Pool/Getty Images |
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are heading to Geneva for Ukraine peace talks planned for Sunday, according to Reuters. US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll has already arrived, according to a US official.
US, European, and Ukrainian officials will meet in the Swiss city on Sunday to discuss Washington’s proposed peace plan for Ukraine, officials told Reuters on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday.
US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll had already landed in Geneva for the talks, and a Ukrainian delegation will arrive tonight, according to sources. US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are due to be there on Sunday.
Kiev has reportedly been given until Thursday to accept the plan, with the possibility of extending the deadline in order to finalize the terms.
The sudden submission of the initiative to a politically weakened Zelensky, along with the release of an alleged draft of the text, has triggered immediate turmoil. Kiev’s European backers are now scrambling, with Western media calling their reaction an “emergency” response. Tensions are rising further as concerns grow over Zelensky’s ongoing corruption scandal.
The Kremlin has refused to engage in what it called “megaphone diplomacy,” following a series of vocal declarations of defiance from Brussels on Friday morning. European Council President Antonio Costa openly admitted that the EU had not been informed about the plan. Zelensky has also held an emergency call with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
12:49 GMT
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would hold a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday.
“We will do everything on the path to peace,” he stressed, speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of G-20 summit in Johannesburg on Sunday.
12:12 GMT
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has welcomed the upcoming talks on the US peace plan in Geneva, saying that it is “good that diplomacy has been reinvigorated.” The delegations from Ukraine, the US and the EU remain “in close contact,” he wrote on X.
“The bloodshed must be stopped, and we must ensure that the war is never reignited,” Zelensky said.
He expressed hope that all of the participants of the Swiss talks will be “constructive,” adding that “we all need a positive outcome.”
12:09 GMT
The Ukrainian delegation in Geneva for talks on the US peace plan with Kiev’s Western backers has held negotiations with national security advisers from the UK, France, and Germany, Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak has said.
“The next meeting is with the US delegation. We are in a very constructive mood,” he stressed.
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| FILE PHOTO: Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and his chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, meeting a foreign delegation in Kiev. © Getty Images / Maxym Marusenko |
11:50 GMT
An American official has confirmed to Reuters that both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, have arrived in the Swiss city of Geneva for talks on Washington’s peace plan for the Ukraine conflict with Ukrainian and Western European officials.
10:38 GMT
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has arrived in Geneva for talks on Washington’s peace plan with Ukrainian and Western European officials, AFP has reported.
Rubio will be representing the US at the meeting in Switzerland together with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
10:35 GMT
Talks in Geneva between US, Ukrainian, and EU officials on Washington's peace plan are not intended to produce a final deal, an unnamed American source has told Reuters.
“We hope to iron out the final details… to draft a deal that is advantageous to them [Ukraine],” the source said.
The official stressed that “nothing will be agreed on” until US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky meet face-to-face.
Convoys of vehicles with US diplomatic plates were seen driving through the Swiss city early on Sunday, but it is not yet clear when exactly the talks will kick off, according to the agency.
10:10 GMT
The head of Ukraine’s National Security Council, Rustem Umerov, has said that Vladimir Zelensky “might be ready to compromise on the crucial issue of swapping land in Donetsk for a peace deal” with Russia, Washington Post foreign affairs communist David Ignatius has said, citing unnamed US officials.
According to the sources, Umerov also told US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, during their meeting in Florida last week that Kiev could agree to cap the size of the Ukrainian military at 600,000 as it is reportedly envisaged in the US-drafted peace plan.
The officials said that Washington is considering supplying long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine as a security guarantee if a peace deal is reached. Members of Trump’s team are “confident that Ukraine would not use these preemptively against Russia because that would cost it US and European support,” they said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned previously that Moscow would consider the delivery of Tomahawks a major escalation and promised a “very strong response.”
09:57 GMT
Washington Post foreign affairs communist David Ignatius has said that an unnamed US official told him the Trump administration came up with its peace plan due to “a sense that recent reversals on the battlefield... and a corruption scandal in Kiev have brought Ukraine to an inflection point.”
There is also a belief in Washington that Russia might be willing to end the fighting due to “feeling growing economic pressure” as a result of the conflict, the source claimed.
Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the capture of the key logistics hub of Kupyansk in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region, and that thousands of Ukrainian troops were being encircled in the Dmitrov-Krasnoarmeysk (Mirnograd-Pokrovsk) urban area in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
Last week, the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) announced a probe into a “high-level criminal organization” allegedly led by Timur Mindich, a former business partner of Vladimir Zelensky, which also involved other high-ranking Ukrainian officials.
09:01 GMT
Russian presidential aide, Kirill Dmitriev, has suggested that the Western money stolen by corrupt Ukrainian officials and funds from the US military-industrial complex are being used to fuel the “media hysteria” aimed at sabotaging the American plan to settle the Ukraine conflict. “They want war,” he wrote on X.
Prof. Hanke estimates corruption accounts for $54–108B of the $360B aid to Ukraine. How much of that stolen cash fuels the media hysteria sabotaging the US peace plan — and how much of the media campaign is financed by the deep state/military-industrial complex? They want war. 🕊️ https://t.co/9aqiJRKKt6
— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) November 23, 2025
08:48 GMT
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have discussed the Ukraine conflict on the sidelines of the G20 summit in South Africa, a joint statement by the two nations said.
Merz and Carney reaffirmed their “unwavering support” for Kiev and insisted that any settlement of the crisis has to involve Ukraine, the document read.
The two leaders also said that a possible peace deal should respect Ukraine’s core interests and provide the country with security guarantees, it added.
Courtesy: RT
