Americans involved in the Ukrainian war effort are embarrassed and dismayed by Donald Trump\u2019s continuing pressures on Kyiv and think his administration\u2019s latest peace plan is tantamount to backstabbing and another catastrophic failure of US foreign policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cComplete bullshit and a betrayal by Trump,\u201d said an American special forces veteran who has helped train and advise the Ukrainian military since the full-scale Russian invasion began in February 2022. \u201cBut are you even surprised?\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, a 28-point peace plan reportedly drafted by Steve Witkoff, a Trump envoy negotiating with the Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev, was leaked to the press and then revealed to be an apparent repackaging of Vladimir Putin\u2019s maximalist demands on Ukraine.<\/p>\n
As soon as Russian bombs were dropping on Kyiv in the early breaths of the war nearly four years ago, thousands of foreigners \u2013 soldiers, veterans, trainers, medics and others \u2013 poured into Ukraine<\/a> to help what was largely seen as a collective defense of democracy against naked imperialism.<\/p>\n Among those international volunteers were hundreds of Americans, if not thousands, many of whom were and are Republicans who have had trouble squaring the animosity Trump has with the country they help. Voices in the GOP have also railed against Trump\u2019s latest demands on Ukraine, with Don Bacon<\/a>, a Nebraska congressman, describing it as \u201cgross buffoonery\u201d and \u201cpushing a surrender plan on Ukraine\u201d that \u201clooks like Russia wrote it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFollows Russia\u2019s talking points almost to the letter,\u201d said the same source, who called Witkoff a \u201cRussian sycophant\u201d.<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cI\u2019m worried they really are getting forced into this one. But too much blood has been spilled. I don\u2019t think Zelenskyy can take anything close to that deal if it means giving up territory and giving up its own sovereignty to make decisions like joining Nato or the size of the military.\u201d<\/p>\n Confusion has also surrounded who exactly wrote the alleged peace plan, with the Republican senator Mike Rounds claiming at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia last week that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, called it a preliminary offer from the Kremlin, which Rubio quickly and publicly <\/a>denied.<\/p>\n Another American working in the defense sector in Ukraine, agreed the latest news of a peace plan was another chapter in the tumultuous relationship between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a>, but told the Guardian he felt bad for the diplomats at the Kyiv embassy, who he described as not \u201cMaga\u201d and \u201cmotivated but totally handcuffed\u201d.<\/p>\n Steve Andre, a Michigan native who served in the Ukrainian military as a press officer and is now in Kyiv re-enlisting, thinks it\u2019s an example of the US\u2019s decaying global interests, something he has seen first-hand for years in Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration doesn\u2019t want to take the time and figure out what is actually happening here in the country,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed in the American people. If they had even an eighth of the bravery and willpower of the Ukrainians, America might still be a great place.\u201d<\/p>\n Major concessions in the plan are being asked of Ukraine. Namely, completely ceding the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, constitutionally affirming it will never join the Nato alliance, and severely cutting the size of its military and arsenal.<\/p>\n A Nato veteran who trains Ukrainian soldiers alongside former US servicemen says money is motivating the US government and called the plan \u201cpathetic\u201d.<\/p>\n