European officials discuss Kyiv peace plan

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KYIV/MOSCOW — European national security advisers arrived in Kyiv on Saturday to discuss the latest peace proposals amid a diplomatic push to end the conflict in Ukraine.

Officials from 15 countries, including Britain, France and Germany, as well as representatives from NATO and the European Union, joined the meeting, the first of several planned for the new year.

A follow-up summit of European leaders is to take place in France on Tuesday, according to Ukraine.

"National security advisers from European countries have arrived in Kyiv," Ukraine's chief negotiator Rustem Umerov said in a post on Telegram. He announced in a later post that the meeting had started.

"The first part of the meeting focused on framework documents, including security guarantees and approaches to the peace plan, as well as the sequence of further joint steps," he said.

Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Taras Kachka, said on Saturday that international partners have reached a consensus on an economic support package of about $800 billion for Ukraine over the next decade.

The package, based on calculations by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the EU, would cover damage compensation, reconstruction, economic stability and a $200 billion growth "booster" and is tied to Ukraine's EU accession reforms.

Specific funding sources have not yet been identified, said Oleksii Sobolev, minister of economy, though roughly $500 billion is expected from public grants and concessional loans, with details to be worked out over the next two weeks.

Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have gained pace in recent weeks, though both Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over key issues, such as territory in a post-conflict settlement.

Russia's defense ministry said it had downed 42 Ukrainian drones on Sunday morning, on top of 90 it had shot down overnight.

One person was killed and two others wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a car in the Russian border region of Belgorod, local officials said on Sunday.

Ukraine's State Emergency Service said three people were wounded in the Kharkiv region in drone strikes overnight into Sunday.

As the year kicked off, Zelensky announced sweeping changes to his top circle. On Saturday, he proposed Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal to become the energy minister and first deputy prime minister.

A day earlier, he appointed the head of Ukraine's military intelligence as his new chief of staff.

Agencies via Xinhua