Europe, Ukraine ready 12-point plan to end Russia’s war: Report
- Last updated: October 22, 2025 | 11:37
European nations are working with Ukraine on a 12-point proposal to end Russia’s war along current battle lines, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
A peace board chaired by US President Donald Trump would oversee the implementation of the proposed plan, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
European leaders called on Washington on Tuesday to hold firm in demanding an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, with present battle lines to serve as the basis for any future talks. The Russian government has long demanded that Ukraine agree to cede more territory before any ceasefire.
Under the proposal, Ukraine would receive security guarantees, funds to repair war damage and a pathway to rapidly join the EU, Bloomberg reported.
Once Russia follows Ukraine in agreeing to a ceasefire and both sides commit to halting territorial advances, the proposals envisage the return of all deported children to Ukraine and the exchanges of prisoners, the report added.
The two countries would enter into negotiations on the governance of occupied territories, though neither Europe nor Ukraine will legally recognise any occupied land as Russian, according to the report.
Sanctions on Russia would gradually be lifted though some $300 billion in frozen central bank reserves would only be returned once Moscow agrees to contribute toward Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, the report said.
The restrictions would be brought back if Russia attacked Ukraine again, Bloomberg added.
However, according to two US officials, Russia reiterated its previous terms for reaching a peace deal with Ukraine in a private communique sent to the US over the weekend known as a “non paper.
The communique reiterated Russia’s demand that it take control of all of Ukraine’s Donbas region, one of the officials said, a stance that effectively rejects Trump’s current position that the frontlines should be frozen at their prevailing locations.
TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT: Meanwhile, plans are on hold for Trump to sit down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to talk about resolving the war in Ukraine, a US official said on Tuesday.
The meeting had been announced last week. It was supposed to take place in Budapest, although a date had not been set.
The decision was made following a call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The official wasn’t authorised to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov indicated on Tuesday there was no sense of urgency for Trump and Putin to meet, saying that “preparation is needed, serious preparation.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders accused Putin of stalling for time to continue his invasion as diplomatic efforts took place.
They also said they opposed any push to make Kyiv surrender land captured by Russian forces in return for peace, as Trump has on occasion suggested.
Eight European leaders as well as senior European Union officials said in a joint statement they intend to go ahead with plans to use Moscow’s billions of dollars (euros) of frozen assets abroad to help Kyiv win the war, despite some misgivings about the legality and consequences of such a step.
Zelenskyy noted that Putin returned to diplomacy and called Trump last week when facing the possibility that the US would supply Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.
But “as soon as the pressure eased a little, the Russians began to try to drop diplomacy, postpone the dialogue,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday in a Telegram post.
“We need to end this war, and only pressure will lead to peace,” he said.
BLACKOUT: Russian attacks killed four people and left hundreds of thousands without power and many without water in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region on Tuesday, Moscow’s latest salvo in a campaign to break its neighbour’s energy system ahead of winter.
The energy ministry said in the morning that the regional capital, also called Chernihiv, and the northern part of the province had lost all electricity supply after strikes on power facilities.
By the afternoon, reporters in Chernihiv saw that power supply had been restored to some homes.
A subsequent daytime attack by about 20 Russian kamikaze drones killed four civilians and wounded at least seven more in the town of Novhorod-Siverskyi, local officials said.
They did not specify what the drones had been targeting, but said the town, which is about 32 km from the Russian border, had suffered significant damage.
In Chernihiv, residents filled containers with water from cisterns on the street, and people headed to “invincibility points” -- tents with stoves and generators set up by authorities to give locals some access to heat and electricity.
Agencies