US, Europe explore peace mechanism to keep Russia negotiations on track

Ukraine and its European partners are drawing up a peace plan designed to keep the US engaged in future negotiations with Russia, following mixed signals from the White House over President Donald Trump’s stance on Moscow’s territorial demands, according to the latest piece by the Financial Times.

European national security advisers met on Tuesday, October 21, to discuss the plan ahead of a “coalition of the willing” meeting in London on Friday. The proposal would include a peace board, modelled on the US-brokered Gaza truce mechanism, potentially chaired by Trump.

Kyiv and its allies have insisted that any talks to end the war must be based on the current frontline, stretching over 1,300km across eastern and southern Ukraine, including Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Ukraine and nine European leaders, including those of France, Germany, the UK, and Italy, reinforced that the “current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations.”

Trump has suggested freezing the frontline rather than ceding additional territory, though he previously proposed surrendering the entire Donbas region. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, rejected Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire, citing previous understandings with President Vladimir Putin. A planned US-Russia summit in Budapest has been cancelled.

Meanwhile, EU leaders are expected to approve plans to use Russia’s immobilised sovereign assets, estimated at €140 billion, to support Ukraine.

Debates continue over how the funds should be allocated, with Germany favouring military equipment, France preferring European-made weapons, and other countries urging flexibility for Kyiv. Ukraine has indicated that certain defence systems, such as Patriot missiles, would need to be procured from the US.

By Tamilla Hasanova