Kyiv manages to amend U.S.-backed peace plan; SBU denies pressuring SAPO
U.S. delegation negotiating with Ukrainian officials, Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 23 (Photo: REUTERS/Emma Farge)
After “tense but productive” talks in Geneva, Switzerland, the United States and Ukraine negotiated a version of the U.S.-backed peace plan that is more acceptable to Kyiv, although core issues remain unresolved.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya told the Financial Times on Nov. 24 that some of Russia’s maximalist demands, such as cutting the size of the Ukrainian military, are gone from the revised document. The delegations, however, did not address the key questions of territorial concessions and Ukraine’s relationship with NATO. These, according to Kyslytsya, will be discussed by the Ukrainian and U.S. presidents later.
The Washington Post reported that U.S. President Donald Trump was not directly involved with the original 28-point draft of the plan. This likely exacerbated the confused U.S. government response when the document was leaked in the media last week: various U.S. officials were making contradicting statements on whether the provisions were made based solely on Russian input or not.
Ukraine’s SBU security service denied reports that the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, instructed the SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office to bring criminal charges against Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) head Oleksandr Klymenko. On Nov. 23, Ukrainska Pravda reported that Yermak allegedly pressured the SBU into charging Klymenko after SAPO, together with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), published findings from their investigation of a money laundering scheme centered on the Energy Ministry.
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