A new US-drafted proposal to halt the war in Ukraine calls for Kyiv to give up some of its territory and some of its weaponry, news reports said, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Turkey in an effort to boost flagging peace talks.
The US proposals also reportedly include cutting the size of Ukraine's armed forces and accepting a rollback of US military assistance that has been essential to Ukraine's fight against Russian forces.
In addition, no foreign troops would be allowed on Ukrainian soil and Kyiv would no longer receive long-range weaponry.
The proposals, which were detailed by The Financial Times and Reuters, largely track with the hard-line demands Russia has made since the beginning of this year, when President Donald Trump moved to open up direct negotiations with Moscow over the Ukraine war.
There was no immediate public response from Ukrainian officials to the reports. A Ukrainian official with direct knowledge of the proposal confirmed its contents but had no further comment.
Shortly after news of the proposals circulated, Zelenskyy posted a message to Telegram where he thanked Turkey's president for hosting the latest talks.
He also praised the "decisive steps and leadership of President Trump [and] every strong and fair proposal to end this war. And only President Trump and the United States of America have enough strength for the war to finally end."
Zelenskyy was due to meet top US Defense Department officials in Kyiv on November 20.
The proposals potentially put Zelenskyy in a difficult position.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold back a bigger, better-equipped Russian Army, even as Moscow's forces suffer extraordinary casualties.
Russia is closing in on the key city of Pokrovsk as part of Putin's stated goal to control all of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
Russia is also battering Ukraine's cities and its energy infrastructure for yet another winter, seeking to demoralize already exhausted Ukrainians.
Overnight, a Russian cruise missile strike hit two apartment buildings in the western city of Ternopil, killing at least 25 people and wounded dozens.
Zelenskyy has refused previous demands from Moscow that Ukraine cede territory or downgrade its armed forces, saying it would only weaken Ukraine to the potential of a future new invasion.
At home, Zelenskyy has been politically weakened by a major corruption scandal that has touched on some of his Cabinet ministers and longtime business partners.
Ukrainian lawmakers have called for Zelenskyy to sack his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.
Yermak, who is traveling with Zelenskyy, posted on social media that "all planned meetings are taking place on schedule" and that he was "in constant contact with representatives of the Donald Trump administration."
The corruption investigation concerns allegations that funds earmarked for building defenses to protect Ukraine's vulnerable energy infrastructure from Russian air attacks were siphoned off in the form of kickbacks to political insiders.
Zelenskyy's Closest Ally
Yermak has played a prominent role in previous diplomatic meetings aimed at finding a path toward a cease-fire or peace deal amid Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
An unelected appointee, Yermak is perhaps the Ukrainian president's most trusted political ally. Their acquaintance began around 2010 and was cemented by a close business relationship before Zelenskyy entered politics. In recent years, Yermak has accumulated significant political influence behind the scenes.
"Yermak is his top aide, his chief administrator, the main button on Zelenskyy's control panel. They've become fused together like Siamese twins," Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta Center for Political Studies in Kyiv, told RFE/RL on November 19.
But he now faces growing pressure for his dismissal or resignation as a high-level corruption investigation gathers pace.
"If Yermak is not fired in the next few days, I worry that we may enter a full-fledged political crisis domestically," Olena Prokopenko, a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund, told RFE/RL.
"The parliament will become dysfunctional; the cabinet ministers will be un-operational. And this is the kind of crisis that Ukraine cannot afford in the midst of the full-scale war and Russia's advances at the front lines," she added.
The corruption allegations boiled over last week when Ukraine's two leading anti-corruption agencies published evidence detailing their findings.
The issue is all the more toxic because Zelenskyy tried to remove the autonomy of the agencies during the summer only to backtrack on the measure after it sparked the largest street protests since Russia's all-out assault began in February 2022.
The revelations have already resulted in the resignations of the energy minister and the justice minister, while a close Zelenskyy associate, Tymur Mindich, has fled the country.
Ali Baba
Secret recordings released by investigators showed suspects operated under code names. On November 18, a Ukrainian lawmaker alleged one of those names, Ali Baba, was actually Yermak.
The lawmaker, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, said the records showed Yermak allegedly directing unnamed officials to investigate officials with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
Yermak has not responded to requests for comment from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
Zelenskyy has announced he will meet with lawmakers from his Servant of the People party on November 20, prompting speculation as to whether Yermak may be about to be fired.
One of the party's legislators, Fedir Venislavsky, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on November 18 that Yermak should resign.
"Yermak's resignation in this case would definitely dampen this certain excitement around the government," he said, adding that among his party colleagues "there was a lot of talk today that Mr. Yermak should leave."
Adding to the rising political temperature in Kyiv, legislators summoned Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko to the parliament on November 19. Two opposition parties have called for the resignation of the entire cabinet.
"So far, Zelensky seems to be missing an opportunity to provide a strong and decisive response to the events of last week and to the scale of the investigation that we have seen and to how his inner circle is thought to be implicated," said Prokopenko.
She added that foreign pressure might be needed to push Zelenskyy into firing his ally. "It looks like the administration, the government, is still trying to take incremental damage control measures."
Fesenko said that for Zelenskyy, dismissing Yermak would be "like chopping off his own right hand," and suggested it was not imminent. But, he added, "Yermak's resignation could also become inevitable in the event of mass protests."
