US-brokered peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have reached a peculiar impasse: both sides are near-consensus on the procedural mechanics of a ceasefire — monitoring mechanisms, prisoner exchanges, the sequencing of troop withdrawals — while remaining fundamentally deadlocked on the questions that actually determine the outcome of the war. According to multiple officials familiar with the talks, Trump and Zelenskyy have agreed on approximately 90-95% of a proposed framework. The remaining 5-10% includes control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the territorial demarcation line in Donbas, and the nature of Ukraine's long-term security guarantees.
Those three issues are not peripheral disagreements. They are the war.
The Zaporizhzhia plant — Europe's largest nuclear power station, seized by Russian forces in the opening weeks of the 2022 full-scale invasion — has been under Russian military administration for four years. Kyiv insists control must revert to Ukraine as a non-negotiable condition of any agreement. Moscow's position is that Zaporizhzhia is Russian territory (it was formally annexed as part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast in September 2022) and that the plant remains under Russian operational control regardless of any ceasefire. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been monitoring the plant throughout the war, has repeatedly flagged the arrangement as inconsistent with basic nuclear safety protocols.
