Ukrainian allies, US officials and even Republican politicians have raised alarm over a peace plan drafted by the US and a sanctioned Russian official. However, Donald Trump has said it isn’t the “final offer” after European officials raised concerns. Follow the latest.
Saturday 22 November 2025 21:32, UK
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Foreign secretaries from Britain and Ukraine spoke this evening, to “coordinate” ahead of the meeting in Geneva tomorrow.
Andrii Sybiha says he’s spoken with Yvette Cooper about peace efforts and the most recent calls between Zelenskyy and Starmer.
He adds:
“Ahead of the national security advisors’ meeting, we coordinated steps to advance a just peace. I thanked the UK for its support and leadership, including within the Coalition of the Willing.”
The Nordic-Baltic Eight has vowed to keep on arming Ukraine.
It warns that Russia has “so far not committed to a ceasefire or any steps leading to peace”.
In contrast, it points out that Ukraine has “continuously shown that it is serious about peace.”
It adds:
“We have, from the outset of Russia’s war of aggression, stood by Ukraine’s side and we will continue to do so. Our resolve comes from the fact that we know that this is not only about Ukrainian security, it is also about the wider security of Europe.”
As we reported earlier, see our 19.20 post, Nordic countries have been among Ukraine’s biggest backers in Europe.
The Nordic-Baltic Eight, which includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden, add that only solutions that “respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and that will bring Ukraine and Europe greater security and stability have our full support.”
The statement finishes with a message to the Ukrainian people, saying:
“Your resolve, determination and courage has been truly admirable from the outset of the war. We want you to know that you are not alone and can count on our support.”
Almost all of today’s diplomatic developments have centred around a US-Russia 28-point peace plan.
The plan was worked up by the White House and Kremlin without Ukraine’s involvement, and acquiesces to many of Russia’s previous demands.
Here is a condensed overview of all 28 points from the peace plan proposed by the Trump administration.
It covers a range of issues – from territorial concessions to reconstruction programmes, the future Ukrainian relationship with NATO and the EU, and educational reforms in both Ukraine and Russia.
A Ukrainian MP tells Sky News the US-Russia peace plan is “insulting”.
“This is about our lives, this is about generations of our people,” Lisa Yasko tells our presenter Jonathan Samuels.
She also calls the Thanksgiving deadline “very offensive and sad”.
Watch her interview here…
Sweden has warned Ukraine’s allies that Nordic countries shouldering most of the financial support is “not sustainable”.
In an interview with Politico, Stockholm’s foreign minister says that some countries have taken on a disproportionate share of the cost of supporting Ukraine.
Maria Malmer Stenergard tells the outlet: “A few countries take almost all of the burden. That is not fair and it’s not sustainable in the long run.”
She adds: “The fact that the Nordic countries, with less than 30 million people, we provide for one-third of the military support that the NATO countries, with almost one billion people, provide this year… this is not sustainable. It’s not reasonable in any way. And it says a lot about what the Nordics do – but it says even more about what the others don’t do.”
Support from Kyiv’s allies, while often equal rhetorically, can be uneven when it comes to stumping up money and resources.
G20 host South Africa has a long-standing relationship with Russia.
Our Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir asks if Ukraine-focused developments there will change the relationship between South Africa and Russia.
Watch her latest here…
France’s President Emmanuel Macron says that the US plan for peace in Ukraine is good, but he warns it needs work.
He says: “All initiatives going towards peace are good but we need something which is good for Ukrainians.”
This continues the efforts of Europeans to try and support Ukraine and push back at the US-Russia peace plan, while keeping Donald Trump on side by not outwardly rejecting it.
Speaking to reporters at the G20 summit in South Africa, Macron says: “There is a peace plan that has emerged, which incorporates ideas that are quite familiar, whether they were shared or not. It’s good in that it proposes peace and recognises important elements on issues of sovereignty, security guarantees.”
However, he adds: “But it’s a basis for work that needs to be revisited, as we did last summer, because this plan, first of all, wasn’t negotiated with the Europeans.”
In a follow-up post on social media, Macron says the plan needs to be “strengthened”.
The French leader points out that many parts of it include European nations and NATO – so must involve them, he says.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Sir Keir Starmer have spoken during what’s been a frantic day for Kyiv and its allies.
Earlier today (see our 16.09 post), Starmer said he was due to talk with Zelenskyy within the hour.
Trying to face down a US-Russia peace plan, Zelenskyy says that the chat has now taken place.
In a post on Telegram, Zelenskyy says: “We had a long conversation, discussed many nuances of diplomatic work in planning the peace process. We will continue to coordinate, and I am grateful to the entire British society for their support.”
Zelenskyy adds that advisers from both countries, as well as the US, France and Germany, will work in Switzerland tomorrow.
The British PM then also spoke to the US leader Donald Trump.
A Downing Street spokesperson says that the PM updated Zelenskyy on the progress of talks of the self-styled coalition of the willing, at the G20 meeting in South Africa.
Then with Trump, the spokesperson says that Starmer relayed such discussions to the US leader and the two leaders agreed their teams would work together on the 28-point peace plan tomorrow in Geneva.
Starmer and Trump also agreed to speak again tomorrow.
Donald Trump has said his current peace plan for Ukraine isn’t his final offer.
Speaking outside the White House to reporters, the US president was asked if the 28-point plan was the “final offer”.
“No, not by far,” he says.
He adds: “We’d like to get the peace, it should’ve happened a long time ago. The Ukraine war with Russia should’ve never happened. If I was president it would have never happened. We’re trying to get it ended. One way or another, we have to get it ended.”
In response to another question, he goes on to say: “Then he can continue to fight his little heart out,” – seemingly in reference to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Watch the US president speaking below…
Previously, when in the Oval Office with New York mayor elect Zohran Mamdani, Trump said Zelenskyy will “have to like” the plan.
“We think we have a way of getting peace. He’s going to have to approve it,” the US president added at the time.
By Beth Rigby, political editor
Keir Starmer flies out of South Africa this evening with two massive issues on his agenda – a potentially manifesto-busting Budget and, as it stands, an unacceptable Ukrainian peace deal.
As he prepared to depart for London, the prime minister confirmed he was dispatching his national security adviser Jonathan Powell to Geneva for talks with US officials, other European security advisors and Ukrainian representatives as Europe and Ukraine scramble to reinsert themselves into a plan drawn up between Washington and Moscow.
The prime minister said on Saturday that there was “more to do on the plan” in the coming days and the focus now was to try to make progress in Geneva.
He said he would speak to President Zelenskyy later on Saturday as allies try to swing this deal more in Ukraine’s favour, with the UK and other international leaders clear on their concerns to limit the size of the Ukrainian army and give up territory to Russia.
But in his remarks on camera, the prime minister was at pains to neither criticise the current deal nor President Trump.
One figure told me that the PM wants to act as a bridge between the Europeans and the US and has been playing a “game of whack-a-mole” over the past couple of days in an effort to keep others from publicly saying the deal is unacceptable for fear it would only serve to irritate President Trump and hurt Ukraine.
The prime minister has yet to talk to the US president about the plan, but says he will talk to him in the coming days.
“I’m absolutely clear in my mind that President Trump wants a just and lasting peace, not just from the actions he’s taken towards that end, but also from the private discussions that I’ve had with him,” Starmer said.
“So I know what he’s trying to achieve. We all want to achieve that.”
But there will be a question about what the alternative options are if allies cannot improve this deal by President Trump’s Thursday deadline.
The first option is to try to improve it and also slow down the process and buy more time, but if that fails, are allies looking at scenarios where they try to shore up Ukraine’s war efforts without US support?
The prime minister responded by talking about point five in the 28-point plan in which Ukraine is offered security guarantees from the US.
“That fortifies in me the belief that what we’re all trying to achieve here is a just and lasting peace will only be just as lasting if there are security guarantees. And if we bear in mind that matters for Ukraine are always to be determined by Ukraine.”
The next 24 hours will be critical as the Europeans, Ukraine and other allies try to improve this deal.
Watch Rigby’s latest analysis here…
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