Vladimir Socor
Western governments have issued competing proposals on how to end Russia’s war against Ukraine. The first was the U.S. proposal tabled for Ukrainian consideration on April 17, followed by a joint proposal on April 23 by France, Germany, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. The joint proposal marked the Europeans’ first entry into these negotiations. Both reported texts have been published in full without changes by the Reuters news agency (Reuters, April 25 [United States], [France, Germany, Ukraine, and United Kingdom]).
The five governments involved have not confirmed, denied, or otherwise commented on these documents. Both proposals are labeled as “frameworks,” which leaves room for more detailed formulation. Their nature is the usual one of unsigned nonpapers, and their classification level is relatively low (the U.S. document “verbally transmitted,” the quadripartite document “official-sensitive”). International and Ukrainian media treat them as authentic expressions of those governments’ current policies, while Russia, the main addressee of these proposals, has only responded obliquely thus far.
Both documents address a wide range of war termination aspects, including military security, economics, and reconstruction. The territorial aspects, however, loom larger than other aspects at this stage, given Russia’s military occupation of Ukrainian territories and its grip on the initiative on the ground.
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