🔗 Share this article

Ex-leader Donald Trump remarked this past weekend that the Russian-prepared proposal for peace was not his ultimate proposal, after intense reaction from Ukraine's leaders and analysts who likened it to the 1938 Munich agreement involving Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler.

In brief remarks at the White House, Trump informed journalists: Our goal is to achieve peace. This should have occurred earlier … we’re trying to get it ended, one way or the other we have to get it ended."

Upcoming Geneva Negotiations Include Multiple Nations

Ukrainian and American delegates are scheduled to meet in Switzerland this Sunday to discuss this proposal. Security officials from Germany, France, and the UK will also participate in the talks in Geneva.

Ahead of the talks, US senators told media outlets that State Department head Marco Rubio reached out to them during his travel to Geneva for clarification on the nature of the leaked plan. According to him, this plan "was not the administration’s plan" but rather reflected Russian desires, according to Senator King, a member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Zelenskyy Confronts Critical Deadline

However, Trump has given Volodymyr Zelenskyy until Thursday to sign the 28-point document. It calls on Kyiv to cede land it currently controls to Russia, downsize its military forces, and surrender long-range weapons. It also excludes international peacekeepers and penalties for Russian war crimes.

During a solemn speech last Friday, Zelenskyy warned that his country confronts an impossible choice in the near future involving preserving the nation's honor and forfeiting a major partner like the United States. Zelenskyy acknowledged that Ukraine is experiencing one of the most difficult moments historically.

Ukrainian Negotiating Team Appointed for Upcoming Talks

Speaking on Saturday, the president emphasized that real or "dignified" peace was always based on "guaranteed security and justice". He announced a negotiating team, established through a decree, which will meet its US counterparts in Geneva, headed by his chief of staff Andriy Yermak.

A additional delegate from Ukraine's team, ex-defense head and security council official Umerov, stated there would be consultations with the US regarding potential terms for a peace deal.

Suggesting red lines, he added: "Ukraine approaches this process with a clear understanding of its interests. This is another stage of the dialogue that has been ongoing in recent days and is primarily aimed at aligning our vision for the next steps."

International Response and Criticism

The Ukrainian president has attempted to engage constructively with the US administration seemingly determined to resolve the war on the Kremlin’s one-sided terms. He has emphasized he cannot give up the nation's independence or abandon a constitution that protects the country’s current borders.

At a meeting in South Africa, G20 leaders and the European Council released a joint statement opposing Trump’s plan, stating it requires further refinement. It said that EU and Nato members would need to be consulted on some of its provisions, which rule out Ukraine's NATO accession and put conditions on its future EU accession.

Citizen Opinion in Ukraine's Capital

Ukrainian reaction to the proposal, prepared by a Russian representative and a US delegate, has been overwhelmingly hostile. Commentators said it outlined a plan for further Russian aggression: not only of Ukraine but of other parts of Europe as well.

Mustafa Nayyem, a journalist and politician who led Ukraine’s 2014 pro-democracy Maidan revolution, remarked it drew comparisons with Chamberlain’s infamous Munich deal. Trumps’s peace plan came from a similar category, with the victim invited "to formulate his own defeat so everyone else can live easier".

In a Facebook post, Nayyem expressed his anger by the complete pardon for Russian atrocities. This offended people who had hidden in basements in Bucha or Mariupol – where Russian troops executed hundreds of civilians – and families of deported children to Russia. A deeply cynical deal, he stated.

Speaking in a Kyiv subway station, Dmytro Sariskyi, 21, said that Russia had been trying to control Ukraine politically and territorially "for years". It conceded "barely anything" in the Trump agreement and maintained troops in Ukraine. In my view, this deal aims to undermine Ukraine and impose unfair terms, he remarked.

If Zelenskyy signed off on the proposals Kyiv would be forced to sacrifice its liberties, he said. If rejected, the US might cease collaboration and intelligence exchange, a vital resource of battlefield information for frontline Ukrainian troops. "There is no good way out of this for now," he remarked.

Diverse Perspectives from Ukrainian Citizens

A different commuter, teenager Sofia Barchan, asserted that Ukraine would "keep strong" lacking US backing. We will continue our struggle as needed. Our territory will remain our territory, including Crimea and the east. They are Ukrainian land." She expressed that the president is intelligent and predicted he would not cede territory.

Speaking in the rain, next to a replica of Kyiv’s original medieval gate, Olena Ivanovna said she was grateful to the former US leader for his peace-making efforts. She suggested that Ukraine should be ready ceding Crimea and the eastern Donbas region for a limited time if it ensured maintaining US support. The president should conduct a public vote on this matter, she proposed.

EU Officials Condemn the Plan

Previous European leaders have strongly criticized the plan. Ex-PM of Finland Marin described it as a disaster, affecting not just Ukraine but for "all of the democratic world". She said if Western nations display vulnerability – as it did in 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea – further hostilities would follow.

The former prime minister of Belgium, Verhofstadt, referenced a statement by Churchill of an appeaser as "one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last". He continued: "Trump now takes Putin’s side. Europe faces a choice between compromise and principles. Another moment of truth for our [European] union."