US and European negotiators draft four-part Ukraine plan built on a ceasefire along the current front line, US official says

A six-hour meeting in Florida on Friday, Oct. 9, produced the outline of a joint US-European peace package for Ukraine, according to a US official familiar with the talks who spoke to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. The column ran Oct. 12 in the paper's Opinions section. It describes a plan still under discussion, not an agreement.

The session was hosted by US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff at Shell Bay, a golf club in Hallandale Beach, Florida, that Witkoff owns. Ukrainian officials attended, along with representatives of the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

The official's stated logic: "We need to make the problem and the solution bigger to help both sides see what the postwar situation would be — and then make concessions."

The four pieces

Reconstruction. The World Bank and the investment firm BlackRock want to build a financing framework for rebuilding devastated regions, paying benefits to families of dead and wounded soldiers, and restoring the economy. Negotiators have asked Kyiv for a detailed cost estimate and guarantees that the money will not be plundered by postwar profiteers. Ukraine has not yet submitted figures. They are expected within days, provided the peace effort does not collapse.

Security guarantees. The US and European countries would commit to respond militarily if Russia attacks again. The US official called that equivalent to NATO's Article 5. Russia would also negotiate with Europe on its own stated security concerns, though the official did not say what that would involve.

Energy. One idea is a pipeline carrying Russian oil and gas to Europe, with Ukraine and Russia splitting the profits. The official said it could sharply cut European energy costs and give Russia "long-term access to the European energy market." A deal would also set out how and when existing sanctions on Russia come off.

A ceasefire on the current line. Russia would stop fighting along what negotiators call the "line of control." Russia would keep the territory it holds, including the contested Donbas. The line is fuzzy, since the front shifts a little almost every day.

Moscow's position

The fourth piece is the hardest. Moscow has repeatedly said it will not freeze the conflict. Vladimir Putin says a settlement requires eliminating the "root causes" of the war.

The Kremlin has also already turned down a Zelenskyy proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that would allow Ukraine to hold presidential elections. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow does not want a temporary ceasefire. Zelenskyy, for his part, has accused Russia of already violating a proposed energy arrangement.

The diesel problem

The talks ran into a separate fight over refineries. Trump wants Ukraine and Russia to stop hitting each other's oil refineries, and the US official said he wants that as a condition of the American initiative. A European diplomat told Ignatius the Ukrainian strikes are hurting Russia's economy and have "increased Zelensky's leverage."

According to the US official, Kushner and Witkoff asked the Ukrainians at the meeting to stop the strikes. The official said the US has made that request six times in recent months, as diesel prices have risen sharply.

Trump has announced a deal with Putin to release millions of tons of Russian diesel onto US and global markets. Zelenskyy says Kyiv will stop hitting refineries only if Russia ends its strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The same US official said Trump threatened to cut off intelligence support. The official offered a scenario in which Zelenskyy agrees to stop the refinery attacks: "We're back in, and we go to Moscow."

The Kyiv Independent has reported that the Ukrainian delegation learned of Trump's diesel decision during the talks in the US. Ukraine's Office of the President said the team was already on its way home.

What is unsettled

Every detail of the plan comes from one anonymous American official, plus a European diplomat on the refinery point. Neither Kyiv nor Moscow has endorsed any element, and the White House has not published a text.

The venue is a plain fact worth stating: the host of the meeting owns the club where it was held. No source in the record alleges anything improper about that.

The next concrete marker is Kyiv's cost estimate for reconstruction, due in the coming days. Whether Russia engages with a ceasefire on the existing line, after its public rejection of freezing the conflict, remains the open question.