In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a contribution to Opinio Juris by Prof Marc Weller considered what a possible settlement for Ukraine might look like. The aim was to show that a relatively condensed settlement could be possible, despite the ever more complex nature of the situation in Ukraine. That contribution also attempted to demonstrate a few ideas on how one might address some of the more difficult issue areas in a potential settlement.

This work remains useful, but the conflict has moved on significantly since then. A revised framework agreement has been proposed here to reflect the relative conditions on the battlefield and the wider political arena as of February 2025, with the renewed push for a settlement under the new Trump Presidency in the United States. The options papers below were mostly prespared over the course of 2022. Nevertheless, the parties and mediators may still find it helpful to see a fairly broad range of options for addressing key issue areas they face when constructing the actual settlement. Below we offer settlement options on most of the core issues for the sides. Consideration should be given to how these key issues and options should be updated in light of current conditions.

Initial versions of these papers were published on Opinio Juris.