European leaders say progress is being made to modify a 28-point plan the United States has proposed to end the war in Ukraine, but the changes appear to be a non-starter for the Russians.

The United Kingdom, France, and Germany put forward an alternative plan on Monday in response to the American proposal, which faced backlash across Europe. The new plan aims at making the deal more palatable for Ukraine. It includes raising the limits on the Ukrainian military to 800,000 troops from 600,000 and drops the requirement for Ukraine to give up claims to additional territory in the Donbas region, Reuters reported. It also calls for a ceasefire along the current front lines.

“We welcomed progress in US/Ukraine discussions in Geneva and affirmed our determined support for just & lasting peace that upholds Ukraine’s sovereignty & Europe’s security,” the foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, Yvette Cooper, said in an X post.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Andriy Yermak, wrote in an X post that negotiators “made very good progress and are moving forward to a just and lasting peace.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the negotiations for America, said President Trump is “quite pleased” with the progress.

“Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening,” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

Russia has not seen the changes but a top Kremlin aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters in Moscow that Europe’s peace plan “constructively doesn’t fit us at all.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said that Washington’s initial plan “could form the basis of a final peace settlement.”

The original American plan would not only let Russia keep lands it has seized, it would also require Ukraine to hand over the remainder of two eastern provinces still in their hands. It would also block Ukraine from ever joining NATO in exchange for poorly defined “NATO‑style security guarantees” that fall short of requiring an American military response to a future invasion.

Reports suggested that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, could travel to the United States as early as this week to discuss peace efforts with Mr. Trump. The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, however, told the Kyiv Independent that no such trip is set to take place.

European concerns about Russia will persist even if the war in Ukraine ends. Analysts have warned that Moscow could attack a NATO country by the end of the decade if its forces are no longer tied up in Ukraine.

Germany is trying to create Europe’s largest conventional army in the face of increased aggression by Russia, which conducts hybrid warfare activities against Germany and has repeatedly sent drones and aircraft into NATO airspace.
“We are seeing a big threat, and the threat is Russia. And this threat is not only on Ukraine. It’s on our peace, on our freedom, on the political order of Europe,” Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said in an interview this summer.