🔗 Share this article

Former President Trump indicated this past weekend that the Moscow-drafted proposal for peace constituted "not my final offer", following strong backlash from Ukraine's officials and analysts who compared it to a 1938 Munich agreement between Neville Chamberlain and Hitler.

During short comments from the White House, Trump informed reporters: Our goal is to achieve peace. This should have occurred earlier … we are attempting to conclude it, in any case it must be resolved."

Forthcoming Geneva Negotiations Include Various Countries

Ukrainian and American officials will meet in Geneva this Sunday for discussions on this proposal. Defense representatives from Germany, France, and the UK are expected to join these negotiations there.

Prior to the talks, American lawmakers told media outlets that Secretary of State Rubio contacted them while en route to Switzerland to clarify the details of this disclosed proposal. According to him, this plan "was not the administration’s plan" but rather a "wish list of the Russians", as reported by independent Maine senator Angus King, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Ukraine's President Faces Crucial Deadline

However, Trump has given Volodymyr Zelenskyy until Thursday to sign this multi-point agreement. The document requires Kyiv to give up land under its control to Russia, reduce its military forces, and relinquish long-range weapons. Additionally, it rules out international peacekeepers and penalties for Russian war crimes.

During a solemn address last Friday, Zelenskyy warned that his country faces a difficult decision over the coming days between preserving the nation's honor and forfeiting a major partner like the United States. Zelenskyy acknowledged that it faces one of the most difficult moments in its history.

Ukrainian Dialogue Delegation Appointed for Geneva Meetings

Speaking on Saturday, Zelenskyy said that real or respectable peace was always based on "guaranteed security and justice". He announced a negotiating team, appointed by presidential decree, which will meet American representatives in Geneva, led by his chief of staff Yermak.

A additional delegate from Ukraine's team, former defence minister and security council official Umerov, said there would be consultations with Washington regarding potential terms for a peace deal.

Hinting at limits, he 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 sought to engage constructively with a White House apparently intent to end the conflict based on Russian conditions. He has made clear that he will not surrender Ukraine’s sovereignty or abandon the constitutional framework that enshrines Ukraine's territorial integrity.

At a meeting held in South Africa, leaders from the G20 and the European Council issued a joint statement opposing the proposed deal, saying it needs further refinement. It said that EU and Nato members must be involved on some of its provisions, that exclude Kyiv’s Nato membership and impose terms on its future EU accession.

Citizen Views in Kyiv

Responses from Ukrainians to the proposal, prepared by a Russian representative and Trump’s representative, have been largely negative. Analysts said it was a blueprint for further Russian aggression: targeting not just Ukraine but of other parts of Europe too.

Mustafa Nayyem, a public figure who led Ukraine’s 2014 pro-democracy Maidan revolution, said it invited parallels 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 said he was outraged by its "full" amnesty for Russian war crimes. It was an insult those who sought shelter in affected cities – where Russian troops executed hundreds of civilians – and families of deported children to Russia. "A rather cynical agreement," he stated.

In an interview in Kyiv’s Golden Gate metro station, Sariskyi, a young adult, commented that Moscow had been trying to dominate Ukraine "for years". It conceded "barely anything" in the proposed deal and continued to keep troops in Ukraine. In my view, this deal aims to undermine Ukraine and impose unfair terms, he said.

Should Ukraine accept the terms Kyiv would be forced to give up its freedoms, he said. If it didn’t, the US might cease collaboration and intelligence exchange, a vital resource of military intelligence for Ukraine's forces. "There is no good way out of this for now," he remarked.

Varied Perspectives from Ukrainian Citizens

Another passenger, teenager Sofia Barchan, said that Ukraine would "keep strong" without American support. 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 predicted he would not cede territory.

Speaking in the rain, next to a replica of Kyiv’s original medieval gate, Olena Ivanovna said her appreciation to Trump for his attempts to broker peace. She suggested that the nation should be ready ceding Crimea and the eastern Donbas region temporarily if it ensured maintaining US support. "President Zelenskyy should hold a referendum and ask the people," she proposed.

European Leaders Condemn the Plan

Former European heads of state have roundly condemned this proposal. Finland’s former prime minister Sanna Marin called it a catastrophe, not only for Ukraine and Ukrainians but for "all of the democratic world". She warned if Western nations display vulnerability – as it did in 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea – further hostilities would follow.

The former prime minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, referenced Churchill’s definition regarding appeasement as someone who accommodates an aggressor. He continued: "Trump now takes Putin’s side. Europe faces a choice between compromise and principles. A critical juncture for the European Union."