{"id":155188,"date":"2025-11-23T09:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T09:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/155188\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T09:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T09:43:08","slug":"ukraine-deal-is-not-final-offer-says-trump-as-officials-gather-for-geneva-summit-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/155188\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine deal is not \u2018final offer\u2019 says Trump as officials gather for Geneva summit \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a> said on Saturday that his Moscow<\/a>-drafted \u201cpeace plan\u201d was \u201cnot my final offer\u201d, after a furious backlash from Ukrainians<\/a> who described it as reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain\u2019s 1938 Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n

The US president told reporters during brief remarks at the White House: \u201cWe\u2019d like to get to peace. It should\u2019ve happened a long time ago … we\u2019re trying to get it ended, one way or the other we have to get it ended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukrainian and American officials will meet in Switzerland on Sunday for talks to discuss the plan. Security officials from France, Britain and Germany are expected to join them in Geneva.<\/p>\n

In the build-up to the talks, the US state department disputed claims by US senators from across the political spectrum that secretary of state Marco Rubio had told them the proposal \u201cwas not the administration\u2019s plan\u201d but a \u201cwish list of the Russians\u201d. The claim, made by figures including the independent senator Angus King, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, was \u201cblatantly false\u201d, said US state department deputy spokesman Tommy Piggott. Rubio later said in a post that the proposal was authored by the US \u201cas a strong framework for ongoing negotiations\u201d and was based on input from both sides.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Borders must not change by force\u2019: World leaders disagree with Trump approach to UkraineOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Mr Trump has given Volodymyr Zelenskiy until Thursday to sign the 28-point document. It calls on Kyiv to give up territory it controls to Russia, reduce the size of its army and relinquish long-range weapons. It also rules out a European peacekeeping force and sanctions for Russian war crimes.<\/p>\n

In a sombre address on Friday, Mr Zelenskiy warned his country faces an impossible choice over the coming days between keeping its national dignity and losing a big partner in the shape of the US. It faces one of the most difficult moments in its history, he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Saturday, Mr Zelenskiy said real or \u201cdignified\u201d peace was always based on \u201cguaranteed security and justice\u201d. He announced a negotiating team, appointed by presidential decree, that would soon meet its US counterparts in Geneva, led by his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.<\/p>\n

Another member of the Ukrainian delegation, former defence minister and national security council secretary Rustem Umerov, said there would be consultations with Washington \u201con the possible parameters of a future peace agreement\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hinting at red lines, Mr Umerov said: \u201cUkraine approaches this process with a clear understanding of its interests. This is another stage of the dialogue that has been ongoing in recent days and is primarily aimed at aligning our vision for the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Zelenskiy has sought to engage constructively with a White House seemingly determined to end the conflict on the Kremlin\u2019s one-sided terms. He has made clear he cannot give up Ukraine\u2019s sovereignty or abandon a constitution that enshrines the country\u2019s current borders.<\/p>\n

At a meeting in South Africa, G20 leaders and the European Council issued a joint statement pushing back on Trump\u2019s plan, saying it needs \u201cadditional work\u201d. It said EU and Nato members would need to be consulted on some of its provisions, which rule out Kyiv\u2019s Nato membership and put conditions on its future EU accession. In his address to the G20 summit<\/a>, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> called for renewed efforts to end the \u201cillegal invasion\u201d of Ukraine by Russia.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian reaction to the text, drawn up by Mr Putin\u2019s envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Mr Trump\u2019s representative, Steve Witkoff, has been overwhelmingly hostile. Commentators said it was a blueprint for another Russian invasion: not only of Ukraine but of other parts of Europe as well.<\/p>\n

Mustafa Nayyem, a journalist and politician who led Ukraine\u2019s 2014 pro-democracy Maidan revolution, said it invited parallels with Chamberlain\u2019s infamous Munich deal with Hitler. Mr Trump\u2019s peace plan came from the same \u201crecognisable genre\u201d, with the victim invited \u201cto formulate his own defeat so everyone else can live easier\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post Mr Nayyem said he was outraged by its \u201cfull\u201d amnesty for Russian war crimes. It was an insult to people who had hidden in basements in Bucha or Mariupol \u2013 where Russian troops executed hundreds of civilians \u2013 and for those whose children had been forcibly deported to Russia, he said. \u201cA rather cynical agreement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Kyiv\u2019s Golden Gate metro station, Dmytro Sariskyi (21) said Russia had been trying to control Ukraine politically and territorially \u201cfor years\u201d. It conceded \u201cbarely anything\u201d in the Trump agreement and continued to keep its forces on Ukrainian soil. \u201cI think the deal is an attempt to break Ukraine and force unjust conditions on us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If Mr Zelenskiyy signed off on the proposals Kyiv would be forced to give up its freedoms, he said. If it didn\u2019t the US would most likely break off co-operation and intelligence sharing, a crucial source of battlefield information for frontline Ukrainian troops. \u201cThere is no good way out of this for now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another passenger, 19-year-old Sofia Barchan, said Ukraine would \u201ckeep strong\u201d without American support. \u201cWe will fight for as long as it takes. Our territory will remain our territory, including Crimea and the east. It belongs to Ukraine.\u201d She said Mr Zelenskiy was a \u201csmart person\u201d and predicted he would not give up Ukrainian land.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the rain, next to a replica of Kyiv\u2019s original medieval gate, Olena Ivanovna said she was grateful to Mr Trump for his peacemaking efforts. She said Ukraine should be ready to give away Crimea and the eastern Donbas region temporarily if it meant keeping the United States as a partner. \u201cPresident Zelenskiy should hold a referendum and ask the people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Previous European leaders have roundly condemned the plan. Finland\u2019s former prime minister Sanna Marin called it a catastrophe, not only for Ukraine and Ukrainians but for \u201call of the democratic world\u201d. She said if the West showed weakness and ignorance \u2013 as it did in 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea \u2013 \u201cmore aggression and conflicts\u201d would follow.<\/p>\n

The former prime minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, quoted Churchill\u2019s definition of an appeaser as \u201cone who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last\u201d. He said: \u201cTrump now takes Putin\u2019s side. Europe must choose again: appeasement or our values, imperialism or freedom. Another moment of truth for our [European] union.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump said on Saturday that his Moscow-drafted \u201cpeace plan\u201d was \u201cnot my final offer\u201d, after a furious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,43,3589,40,38,41,39,9688],"class_list":["post-155188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-ukraine-crisis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}