US wants Ukraine to cede land, cut army size; as EU looks to move military eastward

by AFP Staff Writers
Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) Nov 19, 2025

Ukraine has received a new peace proposal from the United States, which requires Kyiv to cede land controlled by Russia and more than halve its army's size, a senior official briefed on the proposal told AFP on Wednesday.

The plan appears to repeat Russia's maximalist terms -- demands consistently rejected by Ukraine as tantamount to capitulation.

The draft provides for "recognition of Crimea and other regions that the Russians have taken" and "reduction of the army to 400,000 personnel", the source, who does not wish to be identified, told AFP.

The plan would also see Ukraine giving up all long-range weapons.

"An important nuance is that we don't understand whether this is really Trump's story" or "his entourage's", the official added.

It was "unclear" what Russia was supposed to do in return, according to the source.

US media outlet Axios earlier reported Moscow and Washington had been working on a secret plan to end the almost four-year war. The Kremlin had declined to comment on the report, later saying there was nothing new in the peace settlement progress.

AFP has reached out to the White House for comment.

Russia now occupies around a fifth of Ukrainian territory -- much of it ravaged by fighting.

Moscow has repeatedly demanded it retains territory in southern and eastern Ukraine that it occupies and for Kyiv to cede even more land.

Moscow in 2022 annexed four Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson -- despite not having full control over them.

Russia also annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and has fully controlled it since then.

US President Donald Trump has sought to leverage his relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to end the war, but has so far failed to make progress.

Since the start of his second term, Trump's position on the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically back and forth.

Eyeing Russia, EU targets barriers to moving military eastward
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Nov 19, 2025 - The EU on Wednesday took aim at the red tape and bottlenecks hampering the movement of tanks and troops across the continent as fears grow that conflict could one day erupt with Russia.

A European official summed up the challenge: how do you ensure a column of tanks stationed in Spain "doesn't reach Poland after the war"?

For now, that is far from guaranteed.

Tanks and other heavy equipment currently require country-by-country authorisations to transit through European Union territory. Even with permits, convoys often have to take lengthy detours to avoid roads or bridges too weak to bear their weight.

"The fast movement of Europe's militaries is essential for European defence," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. "We have to ensure that forces can be in the right place and at the right time."

With Europe racing to build its defences since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, EU auditors warned this year that moving troops and weapons across the 27-nation bloc remained "problematic" and that it was unclear "who does what".

The European Court of Auditors called governance arrangements for military mobility in the EU "complex and fragmented" -- noting for instance that tanks from one country cannot move through another if they are heavier than road traffic regulations allow.

One telling example: France encountered difficulties in 2022 transporting tanks to Romania after Germany said the heavy equipment could not travel by road. Officials had to charter trains.

Around 500 key choke points have been identified along potential corridors for troop movements through Europe in the event of war, as part of the commission's plan.

Most need urgent upgrades to bring about the kind of mobility that has become a priority since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Underscoring the need to act, EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius quoted the commander of US forces in Europe during World War I, General John J. Pershing, who famously declared: "Infantry wins battles; logistics wins wars."

- Stress tests -

To tackle bottlenecks, the commission is proposing a single permit valid across the EU, replacing the current patchwork of authorisations -- some of which must be requested 45 days in advance.

In emergencies, Brussels also wants clear rules for priority passage to avoid delays.

A so-called solidarity mechanism pooling national dual-use defence resources such as trucks for rapid access is also foreseen.

Kubilius said the EU plans marked a "substantial step forward."

To make sure the system works, the commission said regular "stress tests" would be carried out to check whether infrastructure can handle heavy military traffic.

Awareness of the problem is not new: NATO has been fretting about it for years and the commission has already launched two action plans, the latest in November 2022, which got a lacklustre reception from the Court of Auditors.

Brussels wants to earmark 17 billion euros ($19.7 billion) between 2028 and 2034 to boost military mobility -- 10 times more than under its previous long-term budget.

The commission also on Wednesday unveiled moves to bring Europe's defence industry closer to emerging technologies -- from artificial intelligence to quantum computing and space systems.

While arms manufacturers already use these tools extensively, Brussels wants to encourage joint projects and is pushing in particular for the bloc's emerging "AI factories" aimed at testing artificial intelligence solutions to be opened to defence firms.