The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told European allies that President Donald Trumpʼs administration will insist on a peace deal before agreeing to any long-term security guarantees for Ukraine.
This is reported by Politico, citing sources.
According to them, this condition became the basis of the American proposals that Washington conveyed to Kyiv over the past week. During a conversation with European officials, Rubio emphasized that Trump is ready to negotiate long-term security guarantees for Ukraine so that Kyiv feels protected.
According to a second European diplomat, Rubio emphasized that security guarantees for Ukraine are one of the administrationʼs priorities and a separate item, not related to other, already agreed-upon issues. The US wants a quick settlement of the entire package of agreements.
During talks in Geneva last weekend, Rubio also mentioned security guarantees for Ukraine, but did not provide details and did not repeat that promise during a phone call with British and French representatives.
According to Politico, Rubio outlined a number of other topics for discussion after the agreement, which the Europeans interpreted as issues of Ukraineʼs territorial integrity and frozen Russian assets.
The State Department denied the interpretation of Rubioʼs words.
“Secretary Rubio and President Trump’s entire administration have been clear that security guarantees must be part of any peace agreement — both publicly and privately,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pygott.
The White House also insists that the final peace plan will include security guarantees for Ukraine.
However, some European diplomats fear that the US may tilt the negotiations in Moscowʼs favor.
“There is not a single word about human rights, humanitarian law, international law or principles in these peace plans. This is the creation of a new European ʼsecurity architectureʼ full of holes,” said a fourth European diplomat.
Peace plan for Ukraine
The first version of the peace plan proposed by the United States consisted of 28 points. One of the main provisions concerned territories and provided that Crimea, as well as the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, would be recognized as de facto Russian. The US President Trump set a deadline for approving the plan of November 27.
After the plan was leaked to the media, Ukraine, the United States, and European partners held a series of talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 23. After all the meetings, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced “tremendous progress”. Despite Trump’s words about a deadline, Rubio allowed for a more flexible schedule that would allow for more negotiations.
Financial Times sources wrote that the American plan was reduced from 28 points to 19. It is not known exactly which provisions were removed. The Telegraph previously published an alternative plan from the EU, which contained 24 points.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the document retained the points on the need to release civilians and prisoners of war on an “all for all” basis and return Ukrainian children abducted by Russia. He also confirmed that the plan had been shortened and Ukraineʼs position had been taken into account.
Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsia, who was part of the delegation, said that the US agreed not to limit the size of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to 600 000, and the clause on amnesty for potential war criminals was reworked to take into account “complaints of those who suffered in the war”.
The most contentious issues have been put on hold, including the issue of territories and relations between the United States, NATO, and Russia. They are to be discussed by Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump.
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