US-proposed peace plan surprises Europe - media

The US-proposed plan to end the war between Ukraine and Russia has come as a complete surprise to the diplomatic community, CNN has reports, citing a European diplomat in Ukraine.

"All of this has been considered before and rejected, and now we are back to square one. For Ukrainians, this is simply an unrealistic idea, and there are good reasons for that. This will simply be an invitation for the Russians to come back again in the future. For any Ukrainian leader to accept this would be political suicide, and handing over this fortified territory would be military suicide," the diplomat said.

He also said that foreign ministries from Europe and other countries had called Washington to get clarification on the plan, but were told they also knew nothing.

"We have learned directly from State Department and Capitol Hill officials that no one knew about this plan until it was leaked yesterday. The people who should have known about it did not know about it... It is very frustrating and confusing," he said.

In her first public comments since the plan was revealed, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters on Thursday that "for any plan to work, it needs the support of Ukrainians and Europeans." Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, meanwhile, told CNN that any plans should involve Europe and leave Kyiv the ability to defend itself.

"We have a much greater stake in this than the United States, and so Ukraine, as well as Europe, should be involved," he said.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a group of European leaders are allegedly working on a different version of a plan to end the Russian-Ukrainian war, with fairer conditions for Ukraine than in the document created by the Trump administration, according to the Kyiv-based ezine European Truth (Evropeiska Pravda).