The Americans are calling it a meeting to clarify certain details that will finalise a Ukrainian peace deal, as top US officials, Ukrainians and national security advisors from Germany, France and the UK are in Geneva, discussing a Washington draft deal to end a conflict on the precipice of four years.
The US delegation, as Reuters reports, includes foreign secretary Marco Rubio and Donald Trump's senior advisor Steve Witkoff.
Last Friday, the US President had dramatically presented Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a Thursday Thanksgiving deadline to accept his 28 point plan which calls on Kyiv to cede territory to invader Russia, reduce the size of its armed forces and quit the NATO ambition.
'We hope to finalise the remaining details of drawing up s deal that will be beneficial for Ukrainians', an American official said, clarifying that nothing will be agreed until Trump and Zelenskyy meet.
US army secretary Daniel Driscoll was the first to arrive in Geneva, taking part in preliminary negotiations with a Ukrainian delegation.
Participants in this latest effort, on the heels of the Trump deadline which caught Europe struggling to keep up, include national security advisors from the so called E3, France, the UK and Germany, along with the EU, while Italy will also be sending an official, according to diplomatic sources.
Western leaders consider the Trump peace plan, giving way to fundamental Russian demands, as a basis for war ending talks, while a European counter draft was sent both the Ukraine and the American government.
The warning from Kyiv is that it will never relinquish its dignity, self-respect and freedom.
'I will never betray you' Zelenskyy said in a televised address on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin does accept the plan as a rough peacemaking draft, but might take issue with certain of its territorial proposals, calling on Moscow's forces to withdraw from a number of areas they are currently occupying.
European reactions to the Trump plan
On the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg, European leaders appear to have comprehensively discussed the Trump proposal and according to Bloomberg, take strong exception with Ukrainian territorial consessions, cutting the national army to 600 thousand, the NATO exclusion and the EU paying for reconstruction.
The same sources say that the Europeans don't really want another fallout with the US, but are fearful of not being able to convince President Trump to substantively change a number of the peace terms.
But Trump himself did appear more flexible.
'The war has to end one way or another', he told reporters, but answered in the negative when asked whether the current proposal is also the final one.
'This should have happened a long time ago and the Ukraine-Russia should never have started', the US President added.
If Zelenskyy rejects the arrangement, 'he can continue fighting with all his heart', Trump concluded.
SOURCE: huffingtonpost.gr