The US president has reportedly approved a 28-point peace plan developed with Russia, which requires significant concessions from Ukraine. Kyiv has now confirmed it has received a proposal, after the White House confirmed working “quietly” on a plan. Follow the latest below.
Thursday 20 November 2025 21:06, UK
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We’ve heard from Ukraine’s military after Russia claimed its forces were in control of the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk (see 19.21 post).
Ukraine has denied the statement, and said Russia’s additional claim that its forces control 70% of Pokrovsk is also false.
Earlier, Vladimir Putin Putin said the leadership in Kyiv is holding on to power for personal enrichment, and that Ukrainian military personnel should have the opportunity to lay down their arms and surrender.
The Trump administration has been speaking about the impact of its sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies last month.
As part of the sanctions imposed on 22 October, Rosneft and Lukoil had their assets frozen while US companies were banned from doing business with them.
A senior US Treasury Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters it was seeing signs that the sanctions were making a difference, with prices for Russian oil plummeting as major Indian and Chinese buyers moved to break ties with the companies before Friday’s deadline.
Buyers told the Treasury they planned to cancel, pause or seek ways out of their forward purchases of Russian oil, the official said.
Separate US officials said the price of key grades of Russian oil was now selling at multi-year lows.
There has also been significant outreach from foreign governments and the private sector for guidance on how best to sever ties with the Russian oil firms, the officials added.
We’ve heard from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt this evening, who insisted that the US is having conversations with both Russia and Ukraine about ending the war (see our 18.57 post).
It comes after calls for Ukraine to be at the table for discussions around the latest peace plan.
“Ukraine has got to be at the table, not on the table,” Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake said.
“Otherwise, it just incentivises Putin to push on again,” he told Mornings With Ridge and Frost.
Hollinrake also took a bullish stance on the Russian spy ship that is loitering near UK waters (see our post at 7.42).
“We’ve got to respond with strength,” the MP for Thirsk and Malton said.
“And that’s why I’m most concerned about Keir Starmer – he’s not a strong leader in any shape or form.”
Watch the moment in the video below…
As talk is swirling around the latest peace proposal to end the war in Ukraine, the UN Security Council is discussing the conflict.
Watch along in the live stream below, and we’ll bring you any important updates from the meeting.
By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor
A fierce warning from Britain’s defence secretary to Vladimir Putin to turn his spy ship away from UK waters or face the consequences was a very public attempt to deter the threat.
But unless John Healey backs his rhetoric up with a far more urgent push to rearm – and to rebuild wider national resilience – he risks his words ringing as hollow as his military.
The defence secretary yesterday repeated government plans to increase defence spending and work with NATO allies to bolster European security.
Watch: Will UK back up its warning?
Instead of focusing purely on the threat, he also stressed how plans to buy weapons and build arms factories will create jobs and economic growth.
In a sign of the government’s priorities, job creation is typically the top line of any Ministry of Defence press release about its latest investment in missiles, drones and warships – rather than why the equipment is vital to defend the nation.
I doubt expanding employment opportunities was the motivating factor in the 1930s when the UK converted car factories into Spitfire production lines to prepare for war with Nazi Germany.
Yet communicating to the public what war readiness really means must surely be just as important today.
Vladimir Putin has visited a command post of Russian forces with the chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov and a top military official, according to Moscow.
The Russian president received a briefing on the situation in Kostyantynivka and Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as well as around Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, the Kremlin said.
Putin said the leadership in Kyiv is holding on to power for personal enrichment, and that Ukrainian military personnel should have the opportunity to lay down their arms and surrender.
Gerasimov told Putin that Russia had taken control of the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, as well as more than 80% of Vovchansk.
Over to Washington now, where White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has been speaking about the reported peace plan.
“Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Marco Rubio have been working on a plan quietly for about the last month,” she tells reporters.
“They’ve been engaging with both sides, Russia and Ukraine equally, to understand what these countries would commit to in order to see a lasting and durable peace.”
Leavitt says that talks are continuing but she won’t “litigate the details” of the plan.
“It’s a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine, and we believe that it should be acceptable to both sides and we’re working very hard to get it done.”
‘Very optimistic’ after talks, Leavitt says
She adds that US army secretary Dan Driscoll met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy today.
“We spoke with him, he’s very optimistic following that meeting,” she says.
“We’re having good conversations with both sides with respect to ending this war.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shared details of a meeting with the US Secretary of the Army in Kyiv today.
In a post shared on X, Ukraine’s president said he discussed “options for achieving real peace” with Daniel Driscoll and formats for dialogue between the US and Ukraine, as well as “new impulses for diplomacy”.
“Our teams – of Ukraine and the United States – will work on the provisions of the plan to end the war,” Zelenskyy added.
“We are ready for constructive, honest and swift work.”
As our US correspondent James Matthews outlined earlier, Ukrainians are couching their language diplomatically on social media, albeit with a “polite but firm rejection” (see 18:01).
The update comes after Zelenskyy’s office confirmed he had received a draft of a peace plan from the US to end the war in Ukraine (see 16:14).
Pictures have been coming through from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv this evening.
Its residents can be seen walking along dark pavements with street lighting turned off during a blackout in the city, with some using flashlights on their mobile phones to see ahead.
Emergency power cuts were put in place in several Ukrainian cities earlier this month, including Kyiv, after a barrage of heavy Russian strikes.
Energy officials said earlier today that more than 400,000 Ukrainians were still without electricity as of midday, after Russian attacks on buildings and energy infrastructure in the west of the country.
Our US correspondent James Matthews reports Volodymyr Zelenskyy will want “face time” with Donald Trump to rein in the peace plan for Ukraine, after he confirmed he had received the proposal.
“It resembles very much what Kyiv has long described as capitulation, and that clearly is a view being echoed by European allies,” he said.
“This proposal to cede control of the Donbas, halve the size of Ukraine’s military [and] end US military aid, it has Moscow’s fingerprints all over it.
“On social media the Ukrainians are couching their language diplomatically, albeit with a polite but firm rejection.”
Watch his full analysis here…
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