Senior US officials discuss boosting military aid to Ukraine — Bloomberg
Photo: US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll in Kyiv (General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine)
During his visit to Kyiv, US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll discussed with Ukrainian officials a significant increase in military support as part of the so-called Witkoff-Dmitriev peace plan, according to Bloomberg.
One of the sources interviewed by journalists reported that despite the alleged support from US President Donald Trump, this so-called peace plan, developed by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in agreement with the Russian regime's special representative Kirill Dmitriev, is still under discussion.
And the fate of the negotiations themselves remains uncertain. In particular, Driscoll's visit to Kyiv was not aimed at presenting Ukraine with a fait accompli in the form of a peace plan, but at finding solutions and options acceptable to Washington and Kyiv.
"A delegation of top US military officials, led by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, was in Kyiv this week discussing avenues for progress, and options include ramping up military support," the agency writes.
Strong opposition
The 28-point US peace plan, according to which Ukraine must cede territory and limit its armed forces, has met with strong opposition from US partners and allies, as well as from American politicians.
"It bothers me how little effort has gone into it. It’s going to be declared dead on arrival by a whole host of people, starting with Zelenskiy himself. He’s careful right now, he’s saying that he’s reviewing it, but I don’t see any circumstances where he would be prepared to accept a plan like this," says former US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith.
NATO is dissatisfied with the restrictions imposed on the Alliance by the Witkoff-Dmitriev plan. Western countries are also unwilling to see Russia return to the G8.
At the same time, the concessions that Russia must make are considered insufficient. Several Western leaders have spoken out against the plan as a whole, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
"A lot of the points that I saw are quite problematic. We’ve also made it quite clear that at the end of the day, the most important security guarantee for Ukraine is a strong Ukrainian army," the Greek Prime Minister says.
Driscoll's visit and peace plan
On November 20, Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal and Armed Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi held talks in Kyiv with an American delegation led by US Army Secretary General Driscoll.
During the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll also agreed on a tentative timeline for the preparation and signing of a future agreement based on the American settlement plan.
The American plan itself consists of 28 points and contains a number of conditions that are unacceptable to Ukraine. In particular, it provides for the transfer to Russia of part of the territories that are not currently under Kyiv's control in exchange for providing Ukraine and the EU with long-term security guarantees, reducing the Ukrainian army, renouncing long-range weapons, and so on.
