By Dan Peleschuk and Yuliia Dysa
KYIV, Jan 7 (Reuters) – U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators will revisit the thorny issues of territory and the fate of the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, the most problematic points in peace talks to end Russia’s war.
Kyiv is under U.S. pressure to secure peace in the nearly four-year-old conflict but is pushing back on Russian demands to cede its eastern Donetsk region and give up control of Europe’s largest nuclear facility.
The delegations are in Paris for a third day of talks among Kyiv’s allies on peace and security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, which has been cool on the U.S.-backed process.
“We expect, in particular, that the most difficult issues from the basic framework for ending the war will be discussed – namely, issues related to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and territories,” Zelenskiy wrote on X, announcing a third session with the U.S. team in two days.
He added that he had ordered his team to discuss new leader-level talks involving the U.S. and European allies.
Earlier on Wednesday, Zelenskiy’s top adviser hailed “concrete results” in the Paris talks and vowed Kyiv’s national interests would be protected.
STUMBLING BLOCK
Zelenskiy said on Tuesday after the “coalition of the willing” talks that U.S. and Ukrainian officials had discussed “some ideas” to address the issue of territory.
White House special envoy Steve Witkoff said “land options” had been discussed on Tuesday and that he hoped for compromise to be reached.
Kyiv has refused to pull out of the industrialised Donetsk region, which Russia has taken swathes of but has failed to seize entirely. Zelenskiy has also said the U.S. has floated the idea of a free economic zone there if Ukraine withdraws from the parts of the region that it still controls.
Any compromises on land should be put to a referendum for Ukrainians, Zelenskiy has previously said. According to an opinion poll last month, around three-quarters of Ukrainians are prepared for a deal that would freeze the current front line, but oppose ceding territory.
The U.S. has also proposed trilateral operation of the Zaporizhzhia plant, which Moscow captured in 2022 and connected to its own power grid, with an American chief manager, Zelenskiy said last month.
Kyiv has instead proposed joint Ukrainian-American use of the plant, according to Zelenskiy, with the U.S. itself determining how to use 50% of the energy produced.
(Writing by Dan PeleschukEditing by Hugh Lawson and Frances Kerry)
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