🔗 Share this article

Former President Trump remarked on Saturday that the Moscow-drafted proposal for peace constituted "not my final offer", following fierce criticism from Ukraine's leaders and analysts who likened it to a Munich pact of 1938 involving Chamberlain and Hitler.

During short comments from the White House, Trump told reporters: Our goal is to achieve peace. This should have occurred earlier … we are attempting to conclude it, one way or the other it must be resolved."

Forthcoming Switzerland Negotiations Involve Multiple Countries

US and Ukrainian officials are scheduled to meet in Geneva this Sunday to discuss the plan. Defense representatives from France, Britain and Germany will also participate in these negotiations in Geneva.

Ahead of the talks, American lawmakers told the press that Secretary of State Marco Rubio reached out to them during his travel to Switzerland for clarification on the details of the leaked plan. He said, this plan did not originate from the administration but instead reflected Russian desires, as reported by Senator Angus King, a member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Ukraine's President Faces Crucial Deadline

Nevertheless, Trump has given Volodymyr Zelenskyy a deadline of Thursday for signing this multi-point agreement. The document requires Kyiv to give up land under its control to Russia, reduce the size of its army, and relinquish advanced weaponry. It also excludes a European peacekeeping force and sanctions for atrocities committed by Russia.

During a solemn speech on Friday, Zelenskyy warned that Ukraine confronts a difficult decision in the near future involving keeping its national dignity and forfeiting a major partner like the United States. He admitted that Ukraine is experiencing one of the most difficult moments in its history.

Ukraine's Negotiating Delegation Appointed for Upcoming Talks

In comments on Saturday, Zelenskyy emphasized that genuine or respectable peace depends on "guaranteed security and justice". He announced a negotiating team, appointed by presidential decree, that would soon meet its US counterparts in Switzerland, headed by his chief of staff Andriy Yermak.

Another member from Ukraine's team, former defence minister and national security council secretary Rustem Umerov, stated there would be consultations with Washington "on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement".

Suggesting limits, Umerov noted: Ukraine enters these talks with defined goals. 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 Reaction and Concerns

Zelenskyy has attempted to participate positively with a White House seemingly determined to end the conflict based on Russian conditions. He has made clear he cannot give up Ukraine’s sovereignty or abandon the constitutional framework that enshrines Ukraine's territorial integrity.

At a meeting in South Africa, G20 leaders and EU representatives released a joint statement pushing back on Trump’s plan, saying it needs "additional work". The statement indicated that EU and Nato members would need to be consulted regarding certain clauses, which rule out Kyiv’s Nato membership and impose terms on its European Union membership.

Public Views in Kyiv

Ukrainian reaction to the text, prepared by Putin’s envoy and a US delegate, has been overwhelmingly hostile. Analysts argued it was a blueprint for further Russian aggression: targeting not just Ukraine but other European regions too.

Mustafa Nayyem, a public figure who led Ukraine’s 2014 pro-democracy Maidan revolution, remarked it drew comparisons with the Munich Agreement. The proposal belonged to a similar category, where the affected party is asked "to formulate his own defeat so everyone else can live easier".

On social media, he said his anger by its "full" amnesty for Russian war crimes. It was an insult people who had hidden in basements in Bucha or Mariupol – where Russian troops executed hundreds of civilians – and for those whose children had been forcibly deported to Russian territory. A deeply cynical deal, he stated.

Speaking in a Kyiv subway station, Dmytro Sariskyi, 21, commented that Russia had been trying to dominate Ukraine "for years". The agreement offered "barely anything" in the Trump agreement and continued to keep troops in Ukraine. "I think the deal is an attempt to break Ukraine and force unjust conditions on us," he said.

Should Ukraine accept the terms Kyiv would be forced to sacrifice its liberties, he added. If rejected, the US would most likely break off cooperation and intelligence sharing, a vital resource of battlefield information for Ukraine's forces. "There is no good way out of this for now," he noted.

Diverse Viewpoints from Ukrainian Citizens

Another passenger, 19-year-old Sofia Barchan, asserted that Ukraine would remain resilient lacking US backing. We will continue our struggle as needed. Our territory will remain our territory, including Crimea and the east. It belongs to Ukraine." She expressed Zelenskyy was a "smart person" and forecasted he would not cede territory.

Speaking during rainfall, next to a replica of Kyiv’s original medieval gate, Ivanovna mentioned she was grateful to the former US leader for his attempts to broker peace. She said that the nation ought to consider ceding Crimea and the eastern Donbas region for a limited time if it meant maintaining US support. "President Zelenskyy should hold a referendum and ask the people," she proposed.

EU Officials Condemn the Plan

Previous European leaders have roundly condemned the plan. Finland’s former prime minister Sanna Marin described it as a catastrophe, affecting not just Ukraine but for "all of the democratic world". She said if Western nations display vulnerability – similar to the 2014 Crimea annexation – "more aggression and conflicts" would follow.

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