WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff scrambled Sunday to get the White House’s controversial 28-point Ukraine peace plan back on track after facing bipartisan criticisms that it was nothing more than a Russian “wishlist.”
Ahead of a key meeting in Geneva, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European allies raised major reservations about the proposal, which would force Kyiv to make massive territorial concessions.
Rubio, Witkoff, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, Jared Kushner and several other US officials huddled in Geneva on Sunday with Ukraine’s delegation to go over the blueprint to end the war in what was reportedly a tense meeting at times. Ultimately, the US agreed to make changes to the plan.
“I’m not going to speculate,” Rubio told reporters on Sunday. “I feel very optimistic that we can get something done here.”
“Obviously, the Russians get a vote.”
Looming over the talks was mass confusion over the origins of the plan to end the bloody war in Ukraine — and reports that the Trump administration threatened to cut off aid if Kyiv didn’t accept.
On Saturday, Rubio attempted to allay concerns over the plan during a call with a bipartisan delegation of senators who attended the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), who was on the call, said that Rubio told them, “It is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who was also on the call, indicated that Rubio suggested it was a “wishlist of the Russians.”
But both Rubio and the State Department quickly hit back, with the Secretary of State stating that the plan was “authored by the US.”
“It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine,” Rubio added.
Lawmakers also reported that Rubio demurred on reports that the Trump administration was threatening to cut off aid to Ukraine if the the deal wasn’t accepted. The secretary of state said he hadn’t been privy to those conversations.
President Trump has publicly said he wants Ukraine to accept the deal by Thanksgiving.
During talks on Sunday, the Ukrainians unveiled a counterproposal to modify the 28-point plan, and the American side was open to making some of those changes, Axios reported.
Despite the happy talk to the press, behind closed doors, the US sides accused their Ukrainian counterparts of leaking key details about the peace plan to American media in a bid to stir up domestic backlash, according to Axios.
Here’s the latest on the Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal
Senior US officials previously told The Post they believe Russia leaked the plan.
Zelensky, who initially suggested the plan was a distressing “choice between losing our dignity and freedom and losing US support,” expressed gratitude on Sunday for the American efforts to end the bloody war that has ravaged his country for just under four years.
“Ukraine is grateful to the United States, to every American heart, and personally to President Trump,” he posted on X, not long after Trump fumed that Ukraine showed “zero gratitude” towards him.
“Thank you to everyone who is helping! Thank you, America! Thank you, Europe! I am proud of our people. Glory to Ukraine!”
Zelensky has emphasized that a proper peace plan must take Ukraine’s needs into account and avoid rewarding Russia for launching its invasion and starting the war.
The peace plan, a draft of which leaked last week, calls for Ukraine to make major concessions, including surrendering the entire Donbas region, which Russia has failed to capture for more than a decade of insurgency and war.
Critics fear that giving up the rest of Donbas could leave Ukraine vulnerable to a future Russian attack, as it would cede heavily fortified cities and give Moscow a launchpad for a future invasions.
Just last month, Trump had favored freezing the current lines on the battlefield to avoid complicated negotiations over territory. But the Russians made it clear that would be a dealbreaker.
Under the plan, Ukraine would also have to commit to never joining NATO, shrinking its military force from roughly 900,000 to 600,000 personnel, and giving amnesty to everyone involved in the war — meaning that Russians couldn’t face war crime claims for the atrocities that they have carried out.
The Russians were asked to make only a few concessions in the plan, including a commitment not to invade its neighbors in the future and Ukraine getting some security guarantees.
Those guarantees, however, fall far short of NATO’s Article 5, which treats any attack on a member state as an attack on the entire bloc, leaving little repercussions for Moscow if it choses to launch a third invasion of Ukraine.
All of this sparked immediate backlash from both Democrats and pro-Ukrainian factions of the GOP.
“Vladimir Putin has never once kept a single promise that he has made regarding Ukraine. Not once. Ever. And he’s not about to start now,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who helms the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, warned on X.
“Any agreement that requires any element of trust placed in Vladimir Putin’s ‘promise’ is not worth the paper it is written on.”
European leaders also criticized the plan, with a leaked version of the EU’s own peace proposal released on Sunday appearing to be a direct rebuke.
The plan featured guarantees for Ukraine to keep its membership, NATO eligibility, and to freeze the current frontlines.
