The team, led by US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, held talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko on Thursday morning. They are expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later in the day. Reports began surfacing on Wednesday that the US and Russia had prepared a new proposed framework to end the war, requiring major concessions from Ukraine including giving up territory and dramatically shrinking its military. It was reportedly drafted by President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

Neither Washington nor Moscow have officially confirmed the plan. However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that achieving a "durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions". He said the US was consulting both sides of the conflict to "develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war". Driscoll's team is the most senior military group to travel to Kyiv since Trump took office in January. He is joined by Army chief of staff Gen Randy George, top US army commander in Europe Gen Chris Donahue, and sergeant major of the army Michael Weimer.  Details of the draft Witkoff-Dmitriev 28-point plan emerged more than three weeks after the two men are said to have spent three days in meetings in Miami, Florida.Citing people familiar with the matter, Axios, the Financial Times and Reuters reported that the plans call for Kyiv to give up areas of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine that it still controls, to cut significantly the size of its armed forces, and to forego many of its weapons.  Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Russia. (BBC)