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

Donald Trump on Sunday claimed Ukraine had failed to show gratitude for US efforts to end the war as American, Ukrainian and international negotiators met in Switzerland to discuss a “peace plan” that would include significant concessions from Kiev to Moscow.

Polish President Donald Tusk asked where Trump’s “peace plan” came from after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly admitted that the first draft of the text was written by Moscow.

In a post on X, Tusk said European leaders, along with Canada and Japan, were ready to work on the 28-point proposal. The plan calls for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia and make other major concessions, including limiting the size of its army and not joining NATO.

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

The document was prepared by Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. Speculation based on the language used in the plan suggests that the plan was written in Russian and may have been later translated into English.

A group of US senators said Rubio told them the text did not belong in America. They said it was a Russian document that was deliberately leaked by Moscow and then passed on to Ukraine by the United States. Rubio later insisted that the proposal was written by the United States with input from Russia and Ukraine.

Following contradictory statements and the reaction of some Republican senators, Trump backed down from his previous request for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sign the agreement by this Thursday. Speaking in Washington, the US president said that this “is not my last proposal” and that it opens the door to important changes.

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

European leaders have made clear that the demands drawn up by Moscow and approved by Trump are mostly unacceptable. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Ukraine’s borders cannot be changed by force. He added that imposing a limit on the country’s armed forces would leave the country “vulnerable to future attacks”.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he doubted an agreement could be reached this week given “existing differences”. A Western ambassador said Europeans will loudly praise Trump’s peacekeeping efforts in the coming days, while quietly trying to “rewrite” and “rationalize” the plan.

On Sunday, Rubio and Witkoff arrived in Geneva along with US military secretary Dan Driscoll, who met with Zelenskyy in Kiev last week.

They met with a Ukrainian delegation led by Zelenskyy’s private secretary Andriy Yermak. The Kiev team previously met with officials from France, Germany and the UK, including Keir Starmer’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell.

In a coordinated pushback, European officials said the draft, in its current form, restricted Ukraine’s sovereignty by excluding NATO membership and setting conditions for joining the EU. If adopted, they argue, this would set a dangerous global precedent. It also bans the establishment of a Western peacekeeping force for Ukraine and limits where NATO aircraft can be based.

Putin is trying to turn back the clock 30 years on Europe’s security architecture and implement demands he made shortly before his all-out invasion, an official said. The Russian president called for the withdrawal of NATO military forces to the 1997 borders before the Baltic states and central Europe join the defense transatlantic alliance.

Zelenskyy said his country faces an impossible choice between betraying national interests and losing a major ally like the United States. He has sought to establish a positive, diplomatic relationship with a chaotic White House that seems 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 will be to their advantage.” [Ukraine]. “Nothing will be agreed upon until the two presidents meet,” the official said, referring to Trump and Zelenskyy.