Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll on Thursday and told him that he’s willing to work with the Trump administration on a new plan to end the war with Russia, Axios reported, citing US and Ukrainian officials.
The Trump administration has drafted a new 28-point peace plan with input from Russia that would require Ukraine to cede what territory it still controls in the Donbas and accept limits on its military.
“Our teams – of Ukraine and the United States – will work on the provisions of the plan to end the war. We are ready for constructive, honest and swift work,” Zelensky wrote on X following his meeting with Driscoll.
A US official told Axios that Zelensky and Driscoll “agreed on an aggressive timeline for signature,” signaling the Trump administration wants to get the deal done quickly. But the report also said that the US would take Ukrainian concerns into account and potentially alter the plan.
Driscoll’s meeting with Zelensky followed Reuters reporting that Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, had told associates he planned to leave the administration in January. Kellogg is known for his maximalist positions on the war, always insisting that Ukraine could win, and has reportedly clashed with Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, who has also been working on Ukraine and drafted the peace plan after holding talks with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
The Axios report said that Driscoll didn’t know until last week that he would serve as a peace envoy to Ukraine, an unusual role for the Army secretary. “He’s taking policy briefs. He’s taking backgrounds, history of the war, all sorts of things all the way through the weekend, and then they scream out of here,” a US official said, describing what Driscoll did in the days leading up to his meeting with Zelensky.
The White House said on Thursday that Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are in contact with Russian and Ukrainian officials about the potential peace plan.
“Special Envoy Witkoff and Marco Rubio have been working on a plan, quietly, for about the last month. They have been engaging with both sides, Russia and Ukraine equally, to understand what these countries would commit to in order to see a lasting and durable peace,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
