🔗 Share this article

Former President Donald Trump stated on Saturday that the Moscow-drafted proposal for peace was "not my final offer", after intense backlash from Ukraine's leaders and commentators who likened it to a Munich pact of 1938 between Neville Chamberlain and Hitler.

During short comments from the White House, the US president informed journalists: "We’d like to get to peace. It should’ve happened a long time ago … we’re trying to get it ended, one way or the other we have to get it ended."

Upcoming Geneva Talks Involve Various Nations

US and Ukrainian officials will meet in Geneva on Sunday to discuss this proposal. Security officials from France, Britain and Germany are expected to join the talks in Geneva.

Prior to the talks, American lawmakers told media outlets that Secretary of State Marco Rubio contacted them while en route to Switzerland to clarify the nature of the leaked plan. According to him, this plan "was not the administration’s plan" but instead a "wish list of the Russians", according to Senator King, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Ukraine's President Faces Critical Deadline

Nevertheless, Trump has set Volodymyr Zelenskyy until Thursday to sign the 28-point document. The document requires Kyiv to cede territory it currently controls to Russia, downsize its military forces, and relinquish long-range weapons. Additionally, it rules out international peacekeepers and sanctions for atrocities committed by Russia.

In a sombre speech on Friday, the Ukrainian leader cautioned that his country confronts a difficult decision in the near future between keeping its national dignity and losing a major partner in the shape of the US. He admitted that it faces an extremely challenging period in its history.

Ukrainian Negotiating Team Formed for Upcoming Meetings

In comments this weekend, the president emphasized that real or "dignified" resolution was always based on assured safety and fairness. He revealed a negotiating team, appointed through a decree, that would soon meet its US counterparts in Switzerland, headed by top aide Andriy Yermak.

Another member of the Ukrainian delegation, former defence minister and security council official Umerov, stated there would be consultations with Washington "on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement".

Suggesting limits, he noted: Ukraine enters these talks with defined goals. This represents a continuation of recent discussions focused on harmonizing our plans for future actions."

International Reaction and Criticism

The Ukrainian president has sought to participate positively with a White House seemingly determined to end the conflict based on Russian conditions. He has emphasized that he will not surrender the nation's independence or abandon a constitution that protects Ukraine's territorial integrity.

At a meeting held in South Africa, leaders from the G20 and the European Council issued a joint statement pushing back on the proposed deal, stating it needs further refinement. It said that members of the EU and NATO would need to be consulted regarding certain clauses, that exclude Kyiv’s Nato membership and put conditions on its future EU accession.

Citizen Views in Ukraine's Capital

Responses from Ukrainians to the proposal, prepared by a Russian representative and a US delegate, has been overwhelmingly hostile. Analysts argued it was a blueprint for further Russian aggression: not only of Ukraine but other European regions as well.

Nayyem, a journalist and politician who led the 2014 Maidan protests, said it drew comparisons with the Munich Agreement. Trumps’s peace plan came from the same "recognisable genre", with the victim invited "to formulate his own defeat so everyone else can live easier".

On social media, Nayyem expressed his anger by its "full" amnesty for Russian war crimes. It was an insult those who sought shelter in Bucha or Mariupol – sites of civilian executions – and families of deported children to Russia. "A rather cynical agreement," he concluded.

In an interview in a Kyiv subway station, Sariskyi, a young adult, commented that Moscow had been trying to control Ukraine politically and territorially over many years. It conceded "barely anything" in the proposed deal and maintained its forces on Ukrainian soil. "I think the deal is an attempt to break Ukraine and force unjust conditions on us," he said.

If Zelenskyy signed off on the proposals it would be compelled to give up its freedoms, he added. If it didn’t, the US would most likely break off cooperation and intelligence sharing, a crucial source of battlefield information for Ukraine's forces. "There is no good way out of this for now," he remarked.

Varied Viewpoints from the Public

A different commuter, 19-year-old Barchan, asserted that Ukraine would "keep strong" without American support. "We will fight for as long as it takes. Crimea and the eastern regions are part of Ukraine. It belongs to Ukraine." She expressed Zelenskyy was a "smart person" and predicted he would not cede territory.

Speaking during rainfall, near a historical monument, Olena Ivanovna mentioned she was grateful to Trump for his peace-making efforts. She said that the nation should be ready ceding certain regions for a limited time if it ensured maintaining US support. "President Zelenskyy should hold a referendum and ask the people," she said.

European Leaders Condemn the Proposal

Former European heads of state have roundly condemned this proposal. Finland’s former prime minister Sanna Marin called it a disaster, affecting not just Ukraine but for democracies worldwide. She said if Western nations display vulnerability – as it did in 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea – further hostilities could arise.

The former prime minister of Belgium, Verhofstadt, quoted a statement by Churchill regarding appeasement as "one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last". He added: Trump aligns with Putin. Europe must choose again: appeasement or our values, imperialism or freedom. Another moment of truth for our [European] union."