• US plan would reportedly require Kyiv to give up land.
• Kyiv would also have to accept curbs on military.
• France says peace cannot mean capitulation.
  

BRUSSELS/KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has received the draft of a new US-backed plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine and expects to have talks with President Donald Trump in the coming days, Zelenskiy’s office said on Thursday.

Two sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Washington had signalled to Zelenskiy that Kyiv must accept the US-drafted framework to end the nearly four-year-old war, which includes territorial concessions and curbs on Ukraine’s armed forces.

European countries pushed back on Thursday against the plan, which sources said would require Kyiv to give up more land and partially disarm, conditions long seen by Ukraine’s allies as tantamount to capitulation.

“We are ready now, as before, to work constructively with the American side, as well as with our partners in Europe and around the world, so that the outcome is peace,” Zelenskiy’s office said in a statement on Telegram.

Zelenskiy’s talks with Trump would include discussion of the “key points required to achieve peace”, it said.

“The President of Ukraine outlined the fundamental principles that matter to our people, and following today’s meeting, the parties agreed to work on the plan’s provisions in a way that would bring about a just end to the war.”

Trump and Zelenskiy clashed in front of television cameras in a disastrous meeting for the Ukrainian leader at the White House in March, but talks went more smoothly when he visited the White House this summer.

Video shows Russian soldiers in Pokrovsk

The acceleration in US diplomacy comes at an awkward time for Kyiv, with its troops on the back foot on the battlefield and Zelenskiy’s government undermined by a corruption scandal. Parliament fired two cabinet ministers on Wednesday.

Moscow played down any new US initiative.

“Consultations are not currently underway. There are contacts, of course, but there is no process that could be called consultations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He said Russia had nothing to add beyond the position President Vladimir Putin laid out at a summit with US President Donald Trump in August, adding that any peace deal must address the “root causes of the conflict”, a phrase Moscow has long used to refer to its demands.

With another winter approaching in the nearly four-year-old war, Russian troops occupy almost one-fifth of Ukraine and are poised to capture their first substantial city in nearly two years — the ruined eastern railway hub of Pokrovsk.

Video footage released by Russia’s defence ministry on Thursday showed its troops moving freely through the southern part of Pokrovsk, patrolling deserted streets lined with charred apartment blocks.

‘Peace cannot be capitulation,’ says France

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels did not comment in detail about the US plan, which has not been made public, but indicated they would not accept demands for Kyiv to make punishing concessions.

“Ukrainians want peace – a just peace that respects everyone’s sovereignty, a durable peace that can’t be called into question by future aggression,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot. “But peace cannot be a capitulation.”

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said US special envoy Steve Witkoff had, during a phone call on Thursday, underlined “the importance of close coordination with Germany and our European partners” in talks to end the war.

The White House has not commented on the reported proposals. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that Washington would “continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict”.

“…Achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions,” Rubio said.

A US Army delegation, led by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and the Army’s Chief of Staff Randy George, was in Kyiv and expected to meet Zelenskiy late on Thursday.

They met Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi late on Wednesday. Syrskyi said the best way to secure a just peace was to defend Ukraine’s airspace, extend its ability to strike deep into Russia and stabilise the front line.

President Donald Trump on Thursday assailed Democratic lawmakers who told members of the US military they must refuse any illegal orders, calling them traitors who should face execution.

Trump reposted an article about a video released Tuesday by six Democratic lawmakers who served in the military or in the intelligence community.

“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” the Republican president wrote in a Truth Social post.

“This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country,” Trump wrote in an earlier post. “Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???”

The Democratic lawmakers include Senators Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and Iraq war veteran, and Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy veteran, as well as Representatives Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan.

In the video, the lawmakers directly address members of the US military and intelligence community, saying that the Trump administration was pitting those institutions against the American people and threatening tenets of the US Constitution.

“We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now,” they said.

“Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders,” said Kelly. The other lawmakers offer a similar refrain before Slotkin concluded: “We need you to stand up for our laws, our Constitution. Don’t give up the ship.”

The lawmakers did not refer to any particular incident or scenario, and did not provide any examples of orders that they might consider illegal.

Some Democrats in Congress have been sharply critical of Trump’s military strikes on suspected drug traffickers in the southern Caribbean and the Pacific, focusing on the legality and lack of transparency. There have also been concerns that Trump will launch an attack on Venezuela itself.

“Calling for the execution of senators and members of Congress for reminding our troops of that is chilling behavior we should expect from authoritarians like (Hungarian leader Viktor) Orban or (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, not the president of the United States,” US Senator Chris Coons, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said in a statement.

“Every one of my Republican colleagues needs to stand up and swiftly condemn this.”

Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has occasionally called for jailing people whom he sees as political enemies. His Justice Department has initiated investigations into some of them.

In November 2021, Trump defended the chants of his supporters who called for hanging Vice President Mike Pence as they stormed the US Capitol in a deadly riot on January 6 of that year.

ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi’s new Zayed International Airport has introduced a free SIM and internet service for all passengers arriving from abroad.

Each passenger will receive a complimentary SIM card loaded with 10GB of data, valid for 24 hours, allowing visitors to access essential services immediately after landing.

According to airport officials, the service will help passengers use maps, taxi apps, payment services, messaging and Abu Dhabi travel guides without delay.

Zayed International Airport is among the region’s fastest-growing aviation hubs, serving airlines from more than 30 countries, including Pakistan, and offering flights to more than 100 cities worldwide.

The new terminal has handled 23.9 million passengers up to September this year.