US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the media after visiting the Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel in October. Marco Rubio, pictured speaking to the media in Israel last month, is in Switzerland to help broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. File pool Photo by Fadel Senna/UPI | License Photo
Nov. 23 (UPI) — Talks between the United States and Ukraine in Switzerland have been the “most productive and meaningful so far,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday.
Officials from both countries are meeting in Switzerland as the United States works to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine in the latest chapter of war between the two counties, which has dragged on since early 2022.
Ukrainian and Russian officials have presented the draft of a 28-point plan aimed at ending the war. President Donald Trump has said he wants Ukraine to agree to the deal by Thursday, the BBC reported.
The plan suggests that Russia could be given more Ukrainian territory than it currently holds, puts limits on Ukraine’s army and prevents Ukraine from even becoming a member of NATO. These conditions hew very closely to Moscow’s demands for peace.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a social media post Sunday that European leaders stand ready to reach a deal “despite some reservations,” but said “Before we start our work, it would be good to know for sure who is the author of the plan and where was it created.”
A bipartisan group U.S. Senators told reporters that Rubio told them the deal was not authored by the United States, nor was it the sole position of the Trump administration, but a proposal drafted by Russia and given to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, NBC News reported.
Sen. Angus King, I-Me., said the plan appeared to be a “wish list of the Russians.”
Later, the U.S. State Department countered that claim, called King’s words “patently false,” and said the plan was indeed, the position of the Trump administration.
“The peace proposal was authored by the U.S.,” Rubio wrote on social media Saturday night. “It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
The plan proposes that areas of Ukraine’s Donbas region still under Ukrainian control are ceded to Russia, that Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk are recognized as Russian territory by the United States and that Ukraine will reduce the number of troops in the region to 600,000.
Perhaps most controversially, the proposals also calls for Russia “to be reintegrated into the global economy” and be invited to rejoin the G8, an international forum for leaders of the world’s eight most industrialized nations.
President Donald Trump meets with New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, on Friday. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo