WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war would recognize Crimea and other areas in eastern Ukraine as Russian, bar future expansion of NATO and prohibit either country from using military force once the plan is agreed upon.

According to the 28-point plan, a copy of which was obtained by USA TODAY and was verified by a knowledgeable source, Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk would be "recognized as de facto Russian, including by the United States."

"Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will be frozen along the line of contact, which will mean de facto recognition along the line of contact," the proposal states. "Russia will relinquish other agreed territories it controls outside the five regions."

The proposal also states: "It is expected that Russia will not invade neighboring countries and NATO will not expand further."

Trump's proposal would require Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government to make significant concessions to end the war. Ukraine's army would be capped in size and the nation would have to amend its constitution to prohibit it from joining NATO. Ukraine would also have to give up land that Vladimir Putin's military does not currently control and split the electricity that's produced with the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with Russia.

"Ukrainian forces will withdraw from the part of Donetsk Oblast that they currently control, and this withdrawal zone will be considered a neutral demilitarized buffer zone, internationally recognized as territory belonging to the Russian Federation," the proposal states. "Russian forces will not enter this demilitarized zone."

Russia currently controls roughly 20 percent of Ukraine, including parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk and nearly all of Luhansk. It has occupied Crimea since 2014. It launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Included in the proposal are the promise of unspecified "security guarantees" for Ukraine that the United States says it will provide with compensation.

"After agreeing on future territorial arrangements, both the Russian Federation and Ukraine undertake not to change these arrangements by force. Any security guarantees will not apply in the event of a breach of this commitment," the proposal says.

If Russia were to reinvade Ukraine, it says, global sanctions would be reinstated and "recognition of the new territory and all other benefits of this deal will be revoked."

Trump's proposal also calls for the size of the Ukrainian Army to be capped at 600,000 personnel. As of January, Ukraine had an estimated 880,000 active-duty personnel.

Ukraine would be allowed to join the European Union and would receive $100 billion in funds from frozen Russian assets to rebuild war-affected areas. Children who were forcibly taken from Ukraine would also be returned. Russia would be allowed to rejoin the Group of Seven, a club for the world's most advanced economies, restoring it to the Group of Eight.

Within 100 days, Ukraine would have to hold elections. They have been suspended under the martial law since Russia fully invaded.

Axios was the first to report on the proposal, which U.S. officials stressed was a preliminary document. It was presented to Zelenskyy in Ukraine by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, whose visit was cast as a shake-up in the administration's negotiating strategy as it sought to refresh negotiations to settle the war.

"Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas. And achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Nov. 19 post on X.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump plan would require Ukraine to concede territory to Russia to end war

Reporting by Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect