The Economist: The U.S. Proposes That Ukraine Redraw Regional Borders To End The War
- 10.11.2026, 12:25
Kyiv and its European partners oppose this proposal.
U.S. negotiators are proposing a plan to redraw the administrative boundaries of Ukrainian regions so that Putin can declare that he has achieved his territorial goals without having to transfer to Russia cities that remain under Ukrainian control.
This is reported in an article The Economist.
It is noted that the Americans have already offered several controversial concessions in order to persuade Putin to conclude an agreement.
One of them is Russia’s return to European energy markets, in defiance of a new European Union law. Both Ukraine and its European partners oppose this proposal.
Another idea, according to negotiators, is to alter Ukraine’s administrative borders to allow Russia to claim full control over the Luhansk and Donetsk regions—which it seeks to capture—without requiring Ukraine to relinquish the remaining cities under its control.
“As before, the most difficult issue remains security guarantees, without which Ukraine, according to its own statements, cannot cease hostilities. At this point, there is no obvious compromise that would allow Russia to declare victory while enabling Ukraine to retain full sovereignty even over the part of its territory that remains under its control,” the article notes.
U.S. negotiators claim that Putin might agree to U.S. guarantees modeled after NATO Articles 4 or 5. This refers to a commitment to consult in the event of a threat to Ukraine or to defend it in the event of an attack.
“However, the Ukrainians doubt that they can trust Trump to honor such guarantees. Russia, for its part, shows no signs of being willing to agree to the deployment of multinational deterrent forces in Ukraine. Nor has it dropped its demands that Ukraine declare neutrality and reduce the size of its army,” the publication writes.
One high-ranking Ukrainian official stated:
“Our American friends want a breakthrough in the negotiations. But seeing what the Russians are doing to our infrastructure, it’s hard to believe that such a breakthrough is possible.”