President Donald Trump said Saturday that his administration’s peace proposal for Ukraine and Russia “is not my final offer,” telling reporters after a question from NBC News: “One way or another, we have to end it.”
Trump added that if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not agree with the peace plan, “then he can continue fighting with all his heart.”
Earlier this week, Trump said he wants Zelenskyy, who has doubts about the proposal, to agree to the peace plan before Thanksgiving.
Key points of the proposal include allowing Russia to keep more Ukrainian territory than it currently holds, forcing Ukraine to limit the size of its military and accepting that Ukraine will never join NATO.
Ukrainian lawmakers have criticized the plan for conceding too much to Russia’s demands, although the Trump administration has said the plan, which has 28 points, was drafted with input from both sides of the conflict.
“Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice, whether it is losing its dignity or the risk of losing a key partner, whether it is the difficult 28 points or a very difficult winter,” Zelenskyy said in a video about the plan earlier this week.
Several US lawmakers, including those in Trump’s own party, have also expressed concern about the plan.
“While there are many good ideas in the proposed Russia-Ukraine peace plan, there are several areas that are very problematic and can be improved. The goal of any peace agreement is to end the war honorably and justly, and not to create a new conflict,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote in a post Saturday morning. The South Carolina senator later posted that he was confident Trump would reach a peace deal by putting pressure on both countries and ensure that Ukraine remained free and able to defend itself from future aggression.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, wrote in his own post on
He added: “Ukraine should not be forced to cede its land to one of the world’s most egregious war criminals, Vladimir Putin. The size and disposition of Ukraine’s armed forces is a sovereign choice for its government and its people. And any guarantees provided to Putin should not reward his malign behavior or undermine the security of the United States or its allies.”
The proposal includes a security guarantee with a commitment that the United States and Ukraine’s European allies will treat any future attack on Ukraine as an attack on the broader transatlantic community, a US official told NBC News, with few additional details about what the commitment would entail.
Ukrainian leaders are not the only ones expressing concerns about the plan. On the sidelines of the G20 summit in South Africa, European leaders have said the proposal, if accepted, could “leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attacks.”
That was a key point in a statement signed by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Norway.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Geneva on Sunday to meet with a Ukrainian delegation to advance peace talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, according to two US officials.
According to those officials, a separate meeting with a Russian delegation elsewhere is being considered in the coming days.
Rubio and Witkoff will join Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who arrived earlier Saturday along with the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, Ambassador Julie Davis. Driscoll traveled to Kyiv last week to meet with Zelenskyy.
“Secretary Driscoll and his team have just landed in Geneva to work on the next steps toward achieving peace in Ukraine,” a US official said.
Zelenskyy confirmed details of the meeting in a post on X, saying he had spoken with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday.
“Tomorrow, our advisors will work in Switzerland: representatives of Ukraine, the United States and the E3 format, that is, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The vast majority of European leaders are ready to help and get involved. Consultations are ongoing at various levels, and the efforts of all those seeking genuine and lasting peace are important,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Trump made a quick end to the ongoing war in Ukraine a key promise of his 2024 campaign. So far this year, he has met with Zelenskyy several times and hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska.
Russian leaders, including Putin, have praised the peace proposal, and Putin said that if Ukraine does not sign the agreement, Russia would end the war “by military means, through armed struggle.”
