A US-drafted, 28‑point peace proposal that would formalise large territorial gains for Moscow and sharply limit Ukraine’s military and diplomatic options surfaced Wednesday, setting off alarm in Brussels and Kyiv.
Axios reported the Trump administration had been “secretly working in consultation with Russia” to draft the plan. Media accounts described provisions that would recognise Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk as effectively Russian, freeze parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia along the current contact line, cap Ukraine’s armed forces at about 600,000 and bar Ukrainian membership in NATO.
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Other reported elements would prevent Ukraine from suing Russia for reparations or war crimes, make Russian an official state language, grant special status to the local branch of the Russian Orthodox Church and restrict Ukraine’s long‑range missile capabilities. In return, the United States would offer unspecified security guarantees lasting 10 years and possible economic incentives for Moscow, including phased sanctions relief and cooperation on energy and technology.
European leaders reacted with immediate concern. “For any peace plan to succeed, it has to be supported by Ukraine and it has to be supported by Europe,” Estonia’s prime minister Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels. “The pressure must be on the aggressor, not on the victim. Rewarding aggression will only invite more of it.”
Neil Melvin, director of international security at the Royal United Services Institute, warned the draft would allow Russia “to achieve all the goals that it has set since the onset of its war in 2022” — including territorial control of Donbas and Crimea and “substantial disarmament of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received a draft from US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and said he expected to discuss the plan with President Donald Trump in coming days. The White House signalled urgency: press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr. Trump was “increasingly frustrated with both sides” and wanted a deal. Reuters, citing two sources, reported Washington would cut off weapons supplies and intelligence support unless Mr. Zelensky signed.
The proposal’s economic terms deepened European unease: one reported element would freeze $100 billion in Russian sovereign assets for reconstruction and invest the funds through US‑led vehicles that would, according to the reporting, allocate half the profits to the United States. European officials said that approach would in effect channel financial benefit to Russia.
Moscow’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Russia had received nothing “official” but urged Mr. Zelensky to accept the deal. Russian sovereign‑wealth chief Kirill Dmitriev — a central figure in reported talks with the Trump team — has been described in media reporting as promoting the financial incentives to Washington.
In Kyiv, Mr. Zelensky rejected the framework as unacceptable. In a televised address he called the moment “one of the most difficult” in Ukraine’s history, warning that the plan would mean “life without freedom, without dignity, without justice.”
European capitals scrambled to prepare counterproposals. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held hurried calls with Mr. Zelensky, and Mr. Merz said the contact line should remain the basis for any talks — a formulation that would resist pre‑emptive territorial concessions.
The emergence of the plan has fuelled wider questions about the future of the transatlantic relationship. Former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis put it bluntly on X: “This is the end of the end.”
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
