Trump administration officials have indicated that this is what is needed, the Financial Times reports, citing eight sources with insight into the ongoing talks.
Two of the sources say that it has been set up as Ukraine receiving American promises of military support in peacetime - if the country withdraws all forces from the areas in Donbas that are still under Ukrainian control.
Ukraine and Russia began trilateral talks with the United States last week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that an agreement with American promises of security guarantees and future support is ready to be signed. According to the anonymous sources, the United States is delaying.
Russia has referred to a framework that President Vladimir Putin allegedly agreed with Donald Trump during a visit to Alaska this summer. There, the "territorial issue" remains paramount, Putin's spokesman said on Monday, presumably referring to the Donbas.
The Ukrainian and European sources that the FT has spoken to describe it as the US trying to force Ukraine to agree to Russia's demands.
Trump's press secretary Anna Kelly tells the newspaper that the information is completely false and comes from malicious actors:
The US's only role in the peace process is to bring both sides together to reach an agreement.
