The Trump administration released, or seemed to release, a 28-point plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war. President Trump said that Ukraine had until Thursday to accept it. The plan was seen by everyone as highly favorable to Russia, and Europeans unanimously denounced it. Or, more diplomatically, said it needed some work.
Marco Rubio seemed to agree:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told US senators Saturday that the sweeping peace plan to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine was not America’s — but merely a “leaked” Russian “wish list,” according to reports.
Rubio told a bipartisan delegation at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada Saturday afternoon that the 28-point blueprint supposedly crafted to end the war is actually a Russian proposal, not a US initiative, according to South Dakota GOP Sen. Mike Rounds.
“He made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” Rounds said, Politico reported.
I don’t know how to square that with Trump’s reported ultimatum, asking Ukraine to accept it. In any event, negotiations are ongoing:
Rubio, speaking to the press for the second time today, says negotiators have had a “very good day” and there has been “tremendous amount of progress” in talks about ending the war in Ukraine.
Over the last 96 hours or more there has been extensive engagement with Ukraine, he says.
There was one goal today, he says, to take the points of the plan – which he says were 26 or 28 depending on the version – and to try to narrow which ones were “open items”.He says the parties involved achieved that in a “substantial way”, but adds any final agreement will have to be agreed by the presidents, and that there are still a couple of issues they need to continue to work on.
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Rubio is asked about President Donald Trump’s comments earlier that Ukraine is ungrateful for the US’s support.Rubio says he has spoken to Trump since he made those comments and that the president is now “quite pleased” about the progress the US delegation has made so far in the peace talks.
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Tomorrow, the delegates in Geneva will keep working toward a peace plan, Rubio says.
The process to negotiate that plan has been ongoing the past three weeks, but has significantly sped up in the last 96 hours, he adds.Rubio says he has not seen any European counter-proposal to the one being discussed the last few days.
It comes after several media outlets reported they had seen an alternative plan from European allies.
It is hard to tell what is going on. Maybe Trump and Rubio are playing bad cop/good cop. If Ukraine is not to be a part of NATO, which I think is a given, the specifics of security guarantees–realistically, by the US–are extremely important.
When Trump took office, I shared his optimism that the Ukraine war could quickly be brought to an end. I thought that both parties were exhausted and would be looking for a way out. Their determination to continue fighting has been surprising, and Europeans have not been helpful, basically adopting a “let’s you and him fight” attitude.
Whether the current negotiations will bring the war to an end is anyone’s guess, but I remain optimistic–perhaps foolishly so.
