Trump says Ukraine has ‘zero gratitude’ for peace plan amid international talks

Donald Trump on Sunday claimed Ukraine had shown no gratitude for US efforts to end the war, as American, Ukrainian and international negotiators met in Switzerland to discuss the “peace plan” that would involve significant concessions to Moscow from Kyiv.

Poland’s president, Donald Tusk, asked where Trump’s “peace plan” came from, after an apparent admission by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, that the text was originally drafted by Moscow.
In a post on X, Tusk said European leaders, with Canada and Japan, were ready to work on the 28-point proposal. It envisages Ukraine handing over territory to Russia and making other major concessions including limiting the size of its army and not joining Nato.

Tusk said there were “some reservations” before work could begin. He added pointedly: “It would be good to know for sure who is the author of the plan and where was it created.”

The document was drawn up by Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin’s envoy, together with Trump’s special representative, Steve Witkoff. Speculation based on the use of language in the plan suggests it may have been written in Russian and later translated into English.

A group of US senators said Rubio told them the text was not an American one. It was, they said, a Russian document deliberately leaked by Moscow which the US then passed on to Ukraine. Rubio later insisted the US did “author” the proposal, with “input” from Russia and Ukraine.

Amid contradictory statements, and a backlash from some Republican senators, Trump rowed back from his earlier demand that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, sign off on the deal by this Thursday. Speaking in Washington, the US president said it was “not my final offer”, opening the door to significant changes.

Writing on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump avoided blaming Russia for the war. Instead, he said his predecessor, Joe Biden, was responsible and had given “everything” to Kyiv for “free free free”. Trump added: “UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS, AND EUROPE CONTINUES TO BUY OIL FROM RUSSIA.”

European leaders have made clear that the Moscow-drafted demands endorsed by Trump are mostly unacceptable. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said Ukraine’s borders could not be changed by force. A cap on the country’s armed forces would leave it “vulnerable to future attack”, she added.

Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he was sceptical an agreement could be reached this week, given the “current differences”. One western ambassador said the Europeans would volubly praise Trump’s peacekeeping efforts in the coming days, while quietly seeking to “rewrite” the plan and “make it sensible”.

On Sunday, Rubio and Witkoff arrived in Geneva together with the US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, who held talks last week with Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

They met a Ukrainian delegation led by Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak. Earlier, the Kyiv team spoke with officials from France, Germany and the UK, including Keir Starmer’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell.

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In a coordinated push back, European officials have said the draft as it stands curtails Ukraine’s sovereignty by ruling out Nato membership and setting conditions for its EU accession. If accepted, it would set a dangerous global precedent, they argue. It also rules out a western peacekeeping force for Ukraine and limits where Nato aircraft could be based.

One official said Putin was trying to turn back the clock 30 years on Europe’s security architecture and to enforce demands made shortly before his all-out invasion. Russia’s president called for Nato’s military forces to withdraw to their 1997 borders, before the Baltic states and central Europe joined the defensive transatlantic alliance.

Zelenskyy has said his country faces an impossible choice between betraying national interests and losing a major ally in the shape of the US. He has sought to engage positively and diplomatically with a chaotic White House seemingly determined to end the conflict on Russia’s brutal terms.

“The bloodshed must be stopped, and we must ensure that the war is never reignited,” he wrote. A US official added: “We hope to iron out the final details … to draft a deal that is advantageous to them [Ukraine]. Nothing will be agreed on until the two presidents get together,” the official said, referring to Trump and Zelenskyy.