European counterproposal

Russia trashes Europe’s peace plan — but likes Trump’s Ukraine proposal 

Top Kremlin aide scoffs that the European counterproposal “constructively doesn’t fit us at all.”

By Seb Starcevic and Sascha Roslyakov

A senior adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin scoffed at Europe’s plan to end the war in Ukraine and said the Kremlin preferred U.S. President Donald Trump’s original proposal.

Yuri Ushakov, a veteran foreign policy aide to the Russian leader, told reporters in Moscow that the EU’s peace plan, launched in response to the 28-point plan presented by Washington, “constructively doesn’t fit us at all.”

Ushakov added that Trump’s plan, which included several major concessions to Russia, including ceding vast swathes of Ukrainian territory and capping the size of Kyiv’s military, was more “acceptable” to the Kremlin.

The U.S. administration’s framework — which came with an aggressive Thanksgiving deadline and threats to cut off aid and intelligence to Ukraine unless it accepted — caught Ukraine and its European allies off guard, setting off a weekend of urgent negotiations in Geneva among Washington, Kyiv and European partners.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the discussions in Switzerland as major progress, while noting there was “still some work to be done” before finalizing a proposal.

Trump, who criticized Kyiv on Sunday for showing “zero gratitude,” nevertheless struck an optimistic tone about the Swiss talks. “Something good just may be happening,” he wrote in a social media post Monday.

Neither Trump nor Rubio gave details about what changes were made to the original, 28-point plan, which European leaders were not consulted on and would’ve seen Ukraine kept out of NATO and European fighter jets stationed in neighboring Poland.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Monday that “all issues concerning Europe and also those concerning NATO have been removed from this plan.”