Senior Pentagon officials have arrived in Ukraine to “discuss efforts to end the war” with Russia, the U.S. military said.
A team led by Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kiev on Thursday.
Reports began emerging Wednesday that the United States and Russia were preparing a new basic peace plan. The plan required significant concessions from Ukraine, including giving up territory it still controlled and dramatically reducing the size of its military.
Neither the United States nor Moscow have officially confirmed the plan, drawn up by President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkov and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
But U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote to
EU foreign policy chief Kaza Kalas warned Thursday that Ukrainians and Europeans must be involved for any plan to succeed, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barro said “the Ukrainians do not want any form of surrender.”
The report on the US-Russian peace plan came on a day when at least 26 people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack on a block of apartments in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil. Zelenskyy said Thursday that another 22 people were missing from the scene.
Russia has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Zelensky was in Turkey at the time of the Ternopil attack and, according to unconfirmed Ukrainian reports, a meeting with a Trump envoy in Ankara was planned but canceled.
There was no mention of the basic plan when the Army secretary arrived in Kiev late Wednesday. Army spokesman David Butler said only that Driscoll and his team were “there on a fact-finding mission to meet with Ukrainian officials on behalf of the (Trump) administration to discuss efforts to end the war.”
Driscoll’s team in Kiev is the most senior military group to visit Kiev since President Trump took office in January. He was joined by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, Supreme Commander of U.S. Army Europe Gen. Chris Donahue, and Army Commandant General Michael Weimer.
A Ukrainian official told the BBC’s US media partner CBS that talks on the trip would focus on the military situation on the ground and ceasefire plans.
“President Zelensky and President Trump have already agreed to stop the conflict along existing lines of engagement and have agreed to provide security guarantees,” the anonymous official said.
“We are focused on the next steps to implement the historic defense agreement reached by President Zelenskyy and President Trump,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Denis Shmihal wrote in X after meeting with the U.S. Secretary of the Army on Wednesday.
Details of the Witkoff-Dmitriev 28-point draft plan emerged more than three weeks after the pair reportedly held a three-day meeting in Miami, Florida.
Neither European nor Ukrainian officials appear to have taken part in the talks.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, Axios, the Financial Times and Reuters reported that the plan calls for Kiev to give up the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine it still controls, significantly reduce its military size and lose much of its weapons.
Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out territorial concessions to Russia.
Kirill Dmitriev’s team declined to comment on the report. The BBC has also reached out to the White House and Witkoff’s representatives for comment.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to downplay the reports.
“In this case, there are no further innovations in the ‘Anchorage spirit,’” he told Russian state media, referring to the August summit between Putin and Trump held in the US state of Alaska on Wednesday.
It was not disclosed whether any agreement was reached during the one-day meeting.
Kiev and its Western allies, including the United States, have called for an immediate ceasefire on the vast front line, but Moscow has ruled this out, repeatedly calling for Ukraine to essentially surrender.
Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow’s preconditions for a peace deal, including territorial cession, strict curbs on Ukraine’s military size and national neutrality, had not changed since Putin presented them in 2024.
Meanwhile, a White House official confirmed to the BBC that Keith Kellogg, the special envoy to Ukraine, will resign in January.
He reportedly decided this would be the natural end to his term, which would have to be confirmed by the Senate after more than 360 days.
Kellogg has been seen as a key advocate for Ukraine in the White House at a time when President Trump has often appeared to side with Russia in the conflict.
