Global & US Headlines
Kyiv-Washington Send 20-Point Peace Blueprint to Moscow
On 24-25 Dec 2025, President Zelensky publicly detailed a U.S.–brokered 20-point plan—seeking demilitarized zones in Donbas, EU accession guarantees, and NATO-style security pledges—and transmitted it to the Kremlin, which immediately signaled it would demand major changes.
Focusing Facts
- The draft caps a peacetime Ukrainian army at 800,000 troops with Article-5-like guarantees from the U.S., NATO and EU, subject to U.S. Congressional approval.
- Point 14 requires Russian forces to withdraw from Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions while both armies pull back to create a monitored buffer in Donetsk.
- Dmitry Medvedev claimed 417,000 Russians signed army contracts in 2025, underscoring Moscow’s confidence it can keep fighting.
Context
Great-power peace blueprints tossed into live battlefields rarely stick; the 1950-53 Korean armistice talks dragged on for two years while the front barely moved, and Paris-1973 produced only a pause before Saigon fell. The new 20-point plan reprises that pattern: diplomats sketch post-war investment funds (à la Marshall Plan 1948) even as drones strike Kyiv. It also exposes longer trends: Russia’s insistence on sphere-of-influence buffers echoes its 19th-century imperial doctrine, while Ukraine’s push for NATO-level guarantees shows how the post-1991 security vacuum in Eastern Europe is closing. The heavy U.S. emphasis on reconstruction vehicles and resource extraction raises questions about future economic sovereignty, recalling how oil concessions shaped Middle-East mandates after 1920. Whether or not Moscow signs, the episode matters: it codifies a Ukrainian-Western security architecture that, like Finland’s 1948 Treaty or West Germany’s 1955 NATO entry, could anchor Europe’s map for decades—or, if rejected, foretell a protracted, Korea-style frozen conflict lasting well into the 22nd century.
Perspectives
Mainstream liberal Western media
e.g., The New York Times, France 24, Al Jazeera — Frame the 20-point plan as a serious, U.S.–backed effort by Kyiv that Moscow is poised to spurn because Putin still believes he can win on the battlefield. Accentuating Russian intransigence while downplaying the extent of Ukrainian or U.S. compromises dovetails with Western governments’ narrative and helps justify continuing economic and military support.
U.S. conservative / right-leaning media
e.g., Fox News, Breitbart, RedState — Present Zelensky’s offer of a demilitarised zone and troop pull-backs as a major concession that still hinges on Trump-era diplomacy and faces long odds because Putin holds the upper hand. Emphasising Ukrainian concessions and spotlighting Donald Trump’s brokerage casts the former president as indispensable while minimising Russia’s responsibility for prolonging the war.
Sensationalist/tabloid outlets
e.g., Daily Mail Online, in-cyprus.philenews.com — Focus on Zelensky’s Christmas wish that Putin should “perish,” turning the peace-plan backdrop into a dramatic personal feud. Shock-driven framing personalises the conflict and grabs clicks, but sidelines substantive policy details and can inflame passions rather than inform debate.