Europe pushes back on US peace plan for Ukraine with higher army cap and Nato-style pact – Firstpost

European officials have agreed on a proposed limit to the size of Ukraine’s armed forces as part of ongoing peace talks in Geneva.

The European counter-offer recommends limiting Kiev’s military to 800,000 personnel, against the 600,000 cap included in Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan unveiled on Friday. Ukraine’s army currently numbers around 850,000, making it one of the largest armies in the world even under the revised limit.

The suggested limit marks a major change from three years ago, when Moscow proposed a peacetime Ukrainian army of only 85,000 during talks in Istanbul.

According to a document seen by reutersEuropean countries previously presented a modified version of the US plan that challenges both the military limits and the proposed territorial concessions. The European draft says territorial swap talks should start from the contact line rather than accepting any territory as “de facto Russian”, as outlined in the US proposal.

The counter-proposal was drafted by the European E3 – Britain, France and Germany and retains the US plan as its foundation, but offers point-by-point deletions and modifications.

It also calls for Ukraine to receive a US security guarantee equivalent to NATO’s Article 5, which would strengthen Kiev’s security assurances under any future deal.

It pushes back the US proposal to use frozen Russian assets in the West, primarily in the EU.

“Ukraine will be fully rehabilitated and economically compensated, including Russian sovereign assets, which will be frozen until Russia compensates Ukraine for the damage caused,” the document says.

The US plan proposed that $100 billion of frozen Russian funds would be invested in a “US-led effort at reconstruction and investment in Ukraine” and that the US would receive 50% of the profits from that venture.

The US also proposed that the remaining amount be invested in a “separate US-Russia investment vehicle”.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukrainian delegation head Andriy Yermak both hailed “good progress” at talks in Geneva on Sunday to discuss a resolution to stop the Ukraine war.

“We have made great progress, and we are moving toward the just and lasting peace that the Ukrainian people deserve,” Yermak told reporters. While Rubio said the talks, which continued into the evening, were “probably the most productive and productive so far in this entire process.”

with inputs from agencies