Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
The situation is changing by the minute.
Last week, the U.S. presented a draft plan for peace in Ukraine.
During the weekend, Ukraine and European leaders worked overtime to come up with their own draft for a peace plan, and yesterday it was released.
Axios, which was also the first to report on the U.S. plan, released the plan in full on Thursday, Nov. 20, and yesterday, Sunday, Nov. 23, Reuters released the European counterproposal in full.
But what are the differences between the U.S. and European plans? Well, a lot — but there are four main differences you should take note of.
Size of the Ukrainian army
Point six of the plan is about the total number of military personnel Ukraine can have.
The U.S. proposal includes a limit on the Ukrainian Armed Forces of 600,000 personnel.
The European counterproposal suggests a limit of 800,000 personnel in peacetime (the detail about peacetime is not included in the U.S. proposal).
Ukrainian membership in NATO
One of Russia’s demands for ending the war is that Ukraine agrees to never become a member of NATO.
In the U.S. proposal, Ukraine has to agree to enshrine in the nation’s constitution that the country will never join NATO.
The European proposal, on the other hand, states that Ukrainian membership in NATO depends on the consensus of NATO members, which does not currently exist.
The main difference is that in the European proposal, Ukraine does not have to abandon the possibility of becoming a NATO member in the future.
NATO troops in Ukraine
According to the U.S. plan, NATO has to agree to never station troops in Ukraine.
In the European counterproposal, NATO agrees not to permanently station troops in Ukraine in peacetime.
Territories
In the U.S. plan, the Ukrainian territories of Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk will be recognized as de facto Russian. Russia does not currently have full control of these territories.
In the European plan, Ukraine commits not to recover “its occupied sovereign territory through military means.”
A developing story
Axios released the U.S. draft on Thursday last week, but since then, a number of points have reportedly been deleted from the plan, including a point about future Russian aggression.
Officials from Russia, Ukraine, NATO, and the U.S. are in constant talks about the proposals, which means that the drafts of the plans can change quickly.
Sources: Axios, Reuters
