DELICATE DETAILS IN NEW FRAMEWORK
US negotiator Dan Driscoll said the Abu Dhabi talks were going well. The White House said there had been “tremendous progress” but noted that a few remaining details “must be sorted out.”
Despite the diplomatic activity, the war continued. Kyiv was hit by waves of Russian drones and missiles around 1.00am, killing seven people and setting multiple apartment blocks ablaze. Thick smoke glowed red and orange in the night sky as residents sheltered in metro stations.
Trump last week demanded that Kyiv approve his peace plan by Thursday, the US Thanksgiving holiday. The initial draft sparked alarm in European capitals, proposing that Ukraine forever abandon its NATO ambitions and surrender additional territory beyond the roughly 20 per cent already controlled by Russia.
The updated version raises a proposed cap on Ukraine’s future armed forces to 800,000, up from 600,000, a change welcomed by Ukrainian officials. National security chief Rustem Umerov said there was “common understanding on the core” of the proposal but that sensitive items would need to be finalised in direct talks between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
