Russian and American officials intensified diplomatic efforts this week to find a negotiated end to the Ukraine war, but a senior Ukrainian source insisted that the unresolved questions on territory, demilitarisation and Nato membership remain fundamental.
These points continue to divide Kyiv and the Trump administration even as Washington projects confidence about the progress of talks.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Moscow remained in close contact with China on efforts to halt the conflict.
The Kremlin also confirmed that President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff would travel to Moscow next week for discussions with senior Russian leaders.
According to Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, a preliminary agreement had been reached on the visit, which is expected to include a meeting with the Russian President.
Trump added that Jared Kushner, who was involved in negotiating the ceasefire that paused recent fighting between Israel and Hamas, was also taking part.
The White House said the President is leading an intensified push to secure a negotiated settlement to a war that began when Russian forces entered Ukraine in February 2022.
A US-backed peace plan that surfaced last week sparked alarm in Kyiv and European capitals. Officials feared the framework tilted towards Moscow by blocking Ukraine’s Nato membership, formalising Russia’s control of roughly a fifth of Ukraine and imposing limits on the size of the Ukrainian army.
Following efforts by US and Ukrainian negotiators to reduce differences, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv was willing to move forward with the American proposal and discuss disputed elements with Trump, in talks he said should include European partners.
Even as Trump officials have described rapid progress, a senior Ukrainian source with knowledge of the negotiations told CNN that serious gaps remain.
The source said Ukraine agrees that most of the 28 items listed in the leaked US proposals have been settled, but stressed that at least three critical issues were still unresolved.
The first concerned the future of territories in the Donbas that Russia annexed but did not fully control.
Earlier US drafts suggested Ukraine surrender these areas to form a Russian administered demilitarized zone.
The Ukrainian source said some progress had been made in discussions but insisted no substantive agreement or final wording exists and that it would be inaccurate to say Ukraine has accepted any version of the proposal.
The second sticking point is the proposed cap of 600,000 troops for Ukraine’s military.
While a higher figure has been discussed in recent talks, Kyiv is seeking additional revisions before considering any limits on its armed forces.
The third unresolved issue involves Ukraine’s Nato aspirations.
Kyiv continues to reject any proposal that requires it to renounce future membership, calling such a demand unacceptable and a dangerous precedent that would, in effect, grant Russia a veto over the alliance.
These three points match core conditions stated by the Kremlin as prerequisites for ending its campaign in Ukraine.
They also correspond to sensitive red lines for Ukraine, defended at enormous cost in lives and territory.
Trump and his senior officials have adopted an optimistic public tone.
The president said his negotiators were making progress with both Russia and Ukraine and that Moscow had agreed to some concessions, although he warned the war was shifting in Russia’s favour and that Moscow could seize more land in the coming months.
At the same time, reports of back channel discussions drew new scrutiny.
Bloomberg News said a recording of an October 14 call between Witkoff and Ushakov showed the US envoy urging collaboration on a ceasefire plan and suggesting a Trump-Putin phone call before Zelensky’s visit to the White House.
When asked about the leak, Ushakov suggested the disclosure was intended to hinder the process and said he planned to raise the matter with Witkoff.
Russian forces now control more than 19 per cent of Ukraine, and according to pro-Ukrainian mapping, have advanced in 2025 at their fastest pace since the first year of the war.
Ukraine says those gains have come at enormous cost to Russian troops. US officials estimate more than 1.2 million Russians and Ukrainians have been killed or wounded since the start of the conflict, which has devastated cities and depopulated large areas of Ukrainian territory.
How negotiators navigate those divisions, the source warned, will determine whether the current diplomatic push can bring an end to the conflict or whether these talks once again stall on the most contentious issues at the heart of the war.