President Donald Trump has in recent months brokered peaceful resolutions between numerous warring parties, including Israel and Hamas; Azerbaijan and Armenia; Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Cambodia and Thailand; and India and Pakistan.
The major peace he campaigned on securing between Ukraine and Russia has, however, proven elusive.
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government’s representative to the U.N. appeared to reject the fundamentals of the Trump administration’s 28-point plan for peace.
The plan would have: barred Ukraine from NATO, having an army exceeding 600,000 men, and acquiring nukes but provided Kyiv with a NATO-style security guarantee from the U.S.; recognized much of the occupied territory in eastern Ukraine as Russian; set the stage for an American-backed rebuilding of Ukraine; and granted full amnesty to all parties involved in the conflict.
‘Don’t believe it until you see it.’
While apparently averse to several of the 28 points, Kyiv has, however, since expressed support for an altered version of the peace plan, the details of which Trump and Zelenskyy — who has reportedly not authorized anyone but himself to discuss territorial matters — may soon iron out at the White House.
An official briefed on the negotiations told the Washington Post that Trump’s peace plan had been reduced from 28 points to 19 points by Monday. A European official briefed on the talks suggested that some of the provisions concerning European security didn’t make it to the new draft.
Ukrainian delegate Oleksandr Bevz noted, “Many of the controversial provisions were either softened or at least reshaped” to get Kyiv on board.
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Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
After Ukraine’s delegation returned from Geneva, where they met over the weekend to discuss the American peace proposal with representatives of the Trump administration, Zelenskyy said in a statement on Monday evening that “now the list of necessary steps to end the war can become doable. As of now, after Geneva, there are fewer points — no longer 28 — and many of the right elements have been taken into account in this framework.”
“Our team has reported on the new draft of steps, and this is indeed the right approach,” continued Zelenskyy. “I will discuss the sensitive issues with President Trump.”
Echoing Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s national security secretary Rustem Umerov announced that the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations “reached a common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva.”
Amid U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll’s meetings on Tuesday with Russian and Ukrainian officials in Abu Dhabi, which a spokesman said were “going well,” a U.S. official told CNN that “the Ukrainians have agreed to the peace deal. There are some minor details to be sorted out, but they have agreed to a peace deal.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Tuesday that “tremendous progress towards a peace deal” has been made, adding that “there are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio effectively said the same thing days earlier, adding, “I honestly believe we’ll get there.”
During a press conference with the Belarusian foreign minister on Tuesday, Russian foreign affairs minister Sergey Lavrov noted that Moscow “welcomed” the 28-point plan but will consider the “interim” plan produced by Washington, Kyiv, and the Europeans in the coming days.
Lavrov noted, however, that Russia expects the peace plan to adhere to the terms President Vladimir Putin discussed with Trump during their August summit in Anchorage.
“We are not hurrying. We’re not pushing our American counterparts. We have waited a long time since Anchorage,” said Lavrov. “We are only reminding them that we stick to those agreements.”
Lavrov added, “If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation.”
Trump noted in a Truth Social post on Monday, “Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
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