US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived in Geneva, where Ukrainian, American and European representatives will meet today to discuss Donald Trump's plan for Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported, quoted by bTA.
Rubio arrived in the Swiss city at around 08:30 GMT (10:30 Bulgarian time), AFP journalists reported.
The US administration is already presenting this 28-point plan as a "framework for negotiations", which aims to end the conflict provoked by nearly four years of Russian invasion. The draft has raised fears in Kiev of a forced surrender, but Washington has stressed that it is not a final proposal.
Welcomed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the text reiterates several key demands from Moscow: that Ukraine cede territory, agree to reduce the size of its army and abandon NATO membership. It also offers Kiev security guarantees from the West to prevent further Russian attacks.
The plan has caused a stir among Ukraine's European allies, who have stepped up contacts and insisted on new talks involving them and Kiev, despite the impatience initially shown by the US president.
Donald Trump has given his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky a deadline of November 27 to respond. However, yesterday, when asked whether his plan represented a "final proposal" to settle the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II, Trump said "no".
This text "presents a solid framework for negotiations. It is based on elements provided by the Russian side, but also on contributions from Ukraine", Rubio said in a post on the "Ex" network. In doing so, he denied having told US senators, as some members of the Senate claimed, that the plan did not reflect the US position, but was "a list of Russian wishes".
Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to participate in the discussions in Geneva. The Ukrainian delegation will be headed by the "right-hand man" Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Ermak.
The talks are also expected to include French, German, British, Italian and Canadian officials, but the specific format and location of the discussions have not yet been announced.
At the G20 summit in Johannesburg, 11 countries, mostly European, said in a statement yesterday that the US plan "will require additional work", fearing that it could make Ukraine "vulnerable to future attacks".
French President Emmanuel Macron announced that a video conference meeting of countries supporting Ukraine would be held on Tuesday. He noted that without "deterrents, the Russians will return".