Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has given details of an updated US-brokered peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war, the BBC reports.
Giving details of the 20-point plan agreed by US and Ukrainian negotiators in Florida at the weekend, Zelensky said the Russians would respond on Wednesday once the Americans had spoken to them, the BBC reported.
Describing the plan as "the main framework for ending the war" Zelensky said it proposed security guarantees from the US, Nato and Europeans for a coordinated military response if Russia invaded Ukraine again.
On the key question of Ukraine's eastern Donbas, Zelensky said a "free economic zone" was a potential option, the BBC reported.
He told journalists that as Ukraine was against withdrawal from the east that Moscow has demanded, US negotiators were looking to establish a demilitarized zone or a free economic zone. Any area that Ukrainian troops pulled out of would have to be policed by Ukraine, he stressed.
"There are two options," Zelensky said, "either the war continues, or something will have to be decided regarding all potential economic zones."
The 20-point plan is seen as an update of an original 28-point document, agreed by US envoy Steve Witkoff with the Russians several weeks ago.
Sensitive issues including questions over territory would have to be resolved "at the leaders' level", but the new draft would provide Ukraine with strong security guarantees and a military strength of 800,000, Zelensky explained.
Zelensky explained that if Ukraine was prepared to pull its heavy forces back by five, 10 or 40km in the 25% of Donetsk it still held to create an economic zone, making it virtually demilitarised, then Russia would have to do the same "accordingly by five, 10, or 40km".
Russian troops are currently about 40km (25 miles) east of Ukraine's "fortress belt" cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, having captured the town of Siversk, the BBC reported.
Zelensky made clear that such a free economic zone would have to be under Ukrainian administration and police - "definitely not the so-called Russian police". The current front line would then become the boundary of the economic zone with international forces on the ground along the contact line to ensure no Russian infiltration, he said.
Russia has so far rejected a European proposal to police any peace deal through a Coalition of the Willing as a "brazen threat".
A referendum would need to be held on the whole peace plan, Zelensky said, and only a referendum could decide on the idea of a potential free economic zone in Donbas.
Discussions are still going on over a US plan to receive compensation in return for security guarantees, so Zelensky says it is not currently part of the document.
Among the other points is a requirement for Ukraine to hold elections as soon as possible after the deal is signed. Russia and the US have both pushed for a vote, even though Ukraine is under martial law because of the full-scale invasion.
