Russia-Ukraine war updates: US touts ‘tremendous progress’ in Geneva talks

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You can read about why European leaders are rejecting Trump’s 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine here.

Read an opinion piece about how a corruption scandal may very well be enough to end the war here.

And, you can always find all our coverage of the war here.

But, before we go, here’s a look at some of the day’s important developments:

• Officials from the United States, Ukraine, and national security advisers from France, the United Kingdom and Germany participated in talks in Geneva to address Trump’s 28-point plan for ending the war.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the talks that he expects the negotiations to “deliver the right steps”.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was more upbeat, saying the talks yielded “tremendous” progress and that there is now a foundational document for moving forward on Trump’s peace plan.
• Rubio also discussed a potential visit from Zelenskyy to the US to meet with President Trump.
• Ukraine’s parliament speaker restated his rejection of some of the central points of Trump’s plan: limits on Ukraine’s military, ceding territory to Russia and any foreign dictation of its path to an alliance with NATO.
• Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine continued trading attacks, with several Ukrainians being wounded in a Russian drone attack on Zaporizhia, and Russia saying a power station in the Moscow region was hit.

Anatol Lieven, an analyst at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, also told Al Jazeera that Trump is navigating “deep unhappiness in the US Republican Party and Congress over the original plan”.

“Trump [is] willing to compromise to some extent, but he really wants this to go through. And as I say, Russia has to agree,” Lieven added.

“There is a question, obviously … how far can you change the original plan without Russia simply walking away from the agreement?”

“The point is … if Russia says no to a peace deal, there is no peace deal,” he added, noting that he thinks most of what’s on the table “can be massaged”.

However, regarding “the territorial issue in the Donbas”, Lieven said: “I was told in Moscow, when I was there last month, that this is the minimum that Putin needs in order to declare victory. So that seems to me the overwhelming stumbling point.”

The head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said in a statement on Telegram that the city is under attack by Russian drones.

“A series of explosions has been heard,” Syniehubov wrote.

He added that information about casualties and the consequences of the strikes is still unclear.

Earlier, we reported that Ukrainian and US officials were preparing for a possible visit by Zelenskyy to the US to meet with Trump.

Reuters now reports that talks are under way as well, citing an unnamed source who said the two leaders will discuss one of the most sensitive elements of the agreement being negotiated: the potential handover of Ukrainian territory to Russia.

A large part of Ukraine is already occupied by Russia, and Zelenskyy has repeatedly stated over the course of the war that such a concession would be a red line.

No date has been given for the meeting, which is reportedly being planned.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that since morning, it has “basically been calls, briefings and consultations”, as the diplomatic drive to end the war in Ukraine gathers momentum. Here is a recap of today’s latest developments:

• As talks concluded today, Marco Rubio came out and said the delegations had made “tremendous progress”.
• Zelenskyy could visit the United States this week for direct talks with Trump, CBS reports, but that depends on the outcome in Geneva.
• Zelenskyy expects Geneva talks to deliver the “right steps” towards ending the war, and said Ukraine is being heard.
• Rubio said he hadn’t heard of a European counterproposal, which has been circulating in the press and appeared to favour Ukraine a bit more than Trump did.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to Trump’s “ZERO GRATITUDE” remark by thanking him and the US multiple times in a post on X.
• Russian news agency Interfax is reporting that 31 citizens imprisoned in Belarus have returned home.

The country’s Defence Ministry says that since the beginning of the day, there have been 177 combat clashes.

“Russia made 39 [aerial] strikes, dropped 102 controlled air bombs. In addition, [it] used 3,777 kamikaze drones and carried out 3,696 shellings on settlements and positions of our troops”, the ministry said.

Here’s our latest reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war, and on the talks in Geneva over how to end it:

• US-Ukraine talks: Why are European leaders opposing Trump’s peace plan?
• Opinion: A corruption scandal may well end the war in Ukraine
• War refugee Aonishiki becomes first Ukrainian to win top sumo championship
• Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,368

Zelenskyy could visit the US this week for direct talks with Trump, CBS reports, citing American and Ukrainian officials, as a renewed diplomatic push seeks to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The meeting is contingent on the outcome of talks in Geneva, where US, Ukrainian and European officials have been meeting.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he expects the talks to “deliver the right steps”, following meetings in Geneva between US, Ukrainian and European delegations on the Trump administration’s plan to end the war.

In a post on social media, Zelenskyy said: “The first priority is a reliable peace, guaranteed security, respect for our people, and respect for everyone who gave their lives defending Ukraine from Russian aggression.”

“Millions of Ukrainians clearly support our state’s position. It is palpable,” he said, but cautioned that “people must benefit from all political decisions”.

During the press conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also asked whether Trump and Zelenskyy would have another phone call.

“We’ll see,” he said, keeping in line with the general tone of the presser. “It’s possible.”

Here are some photos from the first round of negotiations between the US and Ukrainian delegations as they worked to hammer out an updated, compromise version of the deal that reworks Trump’s initial proposal.

Earlier this evening, as we reported, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood alongside the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Andriy Yermak, and said the talks were progressing well.

Oleksii Movchan, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, told Al Jazeera that the European counterproposal – which includes stronger security guarantees and would lift limits on the size of Ukraine’s army – is something that “can work”.

Movchan said elements of the US proposal dealing with religion and language touch directly on Ukraine’s identity and would be “extremely difficult” to accept.

“We will have some quite complex discussions inside,” he said.

Lisa Yasko, another Ukrainian MP, told Al Jazeera that the past few days have been “very hard”, citing the pressure stemming from the US push behind Trump’s plan.

“No one consulted us before,” Yasko said. “But we have to make the best of these days to achieve the maximum possible. That’s why it’s very hard to know what to expect in the coming days.”

Yasko also described conditions in Kyiv, noting frequent electricity cuts and saying she had to rely on power banks just to complete the interview.

There has been additional reaction in Washington to the US proposal aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and a close ally of Donald Trump, called the deal an opportunity to end the war “honorably and justly”, while insisting that the US Congress must have oversight.

Posting on X, he wrote: “Congress should also have the ability to review a plan that includes any future security guarantees — just like we have the ability to review any Iran nuclear agreement. Congressional review will allow us to achieve that goal.”

Graham is one of the GOP’s most prominent foreign-policy hawks, and has long influenced congressional debates.

Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, struck a more sceptical tone. “Any agreement that requires any element of trust placed in Vladimir Putin’s ‘promise’ is not worth the paper it is written on,” he said.

Fitzpatrick added that acknowledging Putin’s occupation of Ukrainian territory and allowing Russia to determine which alliances Kyiv can join would set a “brand new precedent”.

Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s wealth fund chief who, according to The Guardian, helped draft Trump’s controversial 28-point Ukraine plan with Steve Witkoff, just retweeted a “change curve” diagram, one of those corporate psychology charts mapping emotional responses to unwanted change.

The curve shows the journey from denial through blame, confusion, and doubt, eventually reaching acceptance and moving on.

The timing is striking. Even as US and Ukrainian delegations report progress in Geneva, Kyiv is under pressure to accept a deal containing many items it strongly objects to. Dmitriev’s remarks imply that Ukraine’s resistance is merely a phase in an inevitable outcome.

pic.twitter.com/XOyfNViP1X

— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) November 23, 2025

Mark Warner, the most senior Democrat on the US Senate Intelligence Committee, has described Trump’s proposals to end the war in Ukraine as “awful” in a scathing interview, saying the conditions imposed by Washington on Ukraine would make Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler “look strong in comparison”.

Chamberlain, the British prime minister during the lead-up to World War II, is noted historically for his refusal to stand up to the German dictator as he made his intentions to go to war clearer.

Warner was speaking to the ABC News programme This Week, where he said the pushback suggested Trump was “seeing this one-sided plan kind of blow up in his face”, and that it had left the US’s European allies “feeling like they’ve been totally left high and dry”.

“My hope is he’ll come back and be a bit more reasonable,” Warner said.