Trump Administration Live Updates: U.S. and Ukraine Hold Talks on Peace Deal as Trump Seeks Swift Approval (NYT, Nov 23, ca. 2:02 pm)
Where Things Stand
Peace talks: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the chief of staff for President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said the two countries held a productive meeting on Sunday in Geneva on a proposal to end the war with Russia. Neither Mr. Rubio nor the Ukrainian representative, Andriy Yermak, took questions about the talks, which were to continue in the coming days. The Trump administration has been pressuring Kyiv to accept the 28-point proposal, which contains provisions that Ukraine has long rejected, by Thursday. Read more ›
Trump criticism: As the officials met, President Trump wrote on social media that Ukraine’s leadership had “EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE” for American military aid and other support since Russia’s full-scale invasion. Mr. Zelensky soon posted his own message, saying Ukraine was “grateful for everything that America and President Trump are doing for security.” Read more ›
Ukraine plan: Mr. Rubio said on Saturday that the United States had “authored” the peace plan, after a Republican senator asserted that Mr. Rubio had distanced himself from the proposal and called it a Russian initiative. ...
The first round of talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials in Geneva on the proposed peace deal has ended, according to Andriy Yermak, who is heading up Kyiv’s delegation. He called the discussions about the potential deal with Russia “very productive,” saying in a post on X that “we have made very good progress and are moving forward to a just and lasting peace.” A second meeting with Ukraine’s European partners will take place “very soon,” he added.
Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is too interventionist on the issues of Venezuela and Ukraine and appears to support armed conflict in both areas. That could cause splits in President Trump’s movement, he added, since the president ran on a campaign of non-interventionism and isolationism.
“I think once there’s an invasion of Venezuela, or if they decide to re-up the subsidies and the gifts to Ukraine, I think you’ll see a splintering and a fracturing of the movement that has supported the president, because I think a lot of people, including myself, were attracted to the president because of his reticence to get us involved in foreign war,” said Paul, a libertarian who supports strong limits on government power.
Ukraine’s government has been insufficiently thankful for American aid, President Trump said Sunday, appearing to repeat his criticism of President Volodymyr Zelensky just as representatives from both nations were meeting to discuss a peace plan with Russia.
The complaint could increase the pressure on the Ukrainian president to accede to the 28-point peace plan, which includes many of the maximalist demands Moscow has made throughout the war. On Friday, Mr. Zelensky said the plan amounted to one of the most difficult moments in the country’s history.
Mr. Trump’s comment, which he shared in a post on social media, was only the latest expression of disdain for the Ukrainian leadership that he has made since his return to office.
“UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS,” Trump said.
Hours later, Mr. Zelensky thanked Mr. Trump in a statement on social media.
“We are grateful for everything that America and President Trump are doing for security, and we keep working as constructively as possible,” he said.
Although he did not mention Mr. Zelensky directly, Mr. Trump has frequently raised similar complaints about the Ukrainian president, whom he described in February as a “dictator without elections” in echoing a demand by Russia that Ukraine hold a presidential election, which are suspended under martial law. ...
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s delegation in Geneva, confirmed “very good progress” in his own remarks to journalists alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He added that talks about the proposed peace plan would be continuing today and in the days ahead.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio just briefed journalists in Geneva, saying that talks today with Ukrainian officials have been “productive” and “very, very meaningful.” He was accompanied by Andriy Yermak of Ukraine’s delegation. Neither took questions from reporters.
The delegations, Rubio said, were working through the peace plan point by point and making adjustments, “narrowing the differences and getting closer to something that Ukraine and obviously the United States are comfortable with.”
President Volodymr Zelensky of Ukraine just said on social media that “the leadership of the United States is important, we are grateful for everything that America and President Trump are doing for security, and we keep working as constructively as possible.” His statement came not long after Trump accused Ukraine of ingratitude as officials from both countries were meeting in Switzerland for talks on the proposal to end the war with Russia.
“Ukraine is in intensive engagement in a very constructive way with the American side and under the umbrella of U.S. leadership,” Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Olga Stefanishyna, said in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “These discussions are ongoing, and we believe that the fair peace is not the words, but this is something that should be put on the paper.” She added that “Russia is not part of this process formally.”
Representative Michael McCaul told ABC’s “This Week” that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him on Saturday night that the 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine was a U.S. document, contradicting a Republican senator who said Rubio called it a Russian-led initiative.
McCaul, the former Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the “inception of the agreement” came from discussions between Steve Witkoff, the U.S. envoy for peace missions, and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. “It’s unclear how much input was given by either Ukraine or our European allies,” he said, but added that there had been “input from Ukraine and from Russia.”
He suggested that about 80 percent of the terms would be agreeable to both side, but the remainder were “really tough items to negotiate.” McCaul added: “I do know that Rubio said, within the next 72 hours, we will know a great deal about whether this goes forward or not.”...
President Trump has accused Ukraine of being insufficiently grateful for U.S. support, and it’s not the first time. It was an accusation that featured heavily in a disastrous Oval Office meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in February. In the immediate aftermath and ever since, Ukraine’s leadership has taken pains to regularly express thanks for U.S. support.
As U.S. and Ukrainian officials hold talks in Geneva about a peace plan for the war in Ukraine, President Trump said Sunday that Ukraine had been insufficiently thankful for American military aid and other support since Russia’s full scale invasion. “UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS,” Trump said in a post on social media that appeared to criticize President Volodymyr Zelensky. Critics of the plan say it would offer too many concessions to Moscow.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said he has received “brief reports” about the first meetings on Sunday in Geneva between U.S. officials and Kyiv’s delegation.
“Currently, there is an understanding that the American proposals may include a number of elements based on Ukrainian perspectives and critical for Ukrainian national interests,” Zelensky wrote on social media. “Further work is ongoing to make all elements truly effective in achieving the main goal anticipated by our people: to finally put an end to the bloodshed and war.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the United States “authored” a 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, after a Republican senator asserted that Mr. Rubio had distanced himself from the proposal and called it a Russian initiative.
Mr. Rubio made the assertion on social media after Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, said Mr. Rubio had earlier on Saturday held a call with a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers attending a security conference in Canada. Mr. Rounds said that in the call, Mr. Rubio had suggested that it was a Russian proposal, not a U.S. plan.
“He made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” Mr. Rounds said Saturday at a news conference at the Halifax International Security Forum, speaking about Mr. Rubio. “It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan.”
Mr. Rounds said Mr. Rubio “made it clear that it was an opportunity to have received” the plan. “You now have one side being presented, and the opportunity for the other side to respond,” Mr. Rounds said. Some critics of the plan have said it would force Ukraine to make unreasonable concessions to Russia.
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, on Saturday denied an allegation that the plan was essentially a Russian wish list, saying that this was “blatantly false.”
“As Secretary Rubio and the entire Administration has consistently maintained, this plan was authored by the United States, with input from both the Russians and Ukrainians,” Mr. Pigott wrote on social media.
The plan, which was initially negotiated between the United States and Russia without direct Ukrainian involvement and has not officially been made public but has been widely leaked, would involve Ukraine ceding land it currently holds, limiting the size of its military and foregoing any attempt to join NATO. In the past, Ukraine has rejected these steps as a capitulation, and Ukraine’s allies have pushed back against the proposal.
Ukrainian, European and American officials, including Mr. Rubio, were meeting in Switzerland on Sunday as part of President Trump’s push to get Kyiv to accept a peace plan to end the war with Russia.
“The peace proposal was authored by the U.S.,” Mr. Rubio said on Saturday on his personal social media account. “It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations,” he said, adding: “It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
In his social media post, Mr. Rubio did not confirm whether he had spoken to Mr. Rounds and other U.S. lawmakers at the Halifax forum. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Trump has given President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine until Thursday to agree to the plan, though he said Saturday it was not a final offer and suggested that the deadline could be extended if there was progress in talks.
U.S. officials said that talks between Washington and Kyiv over the plan would take place in Switzerland and that separate talks between the United States and Russia are already underway.
On Saturday, some of Kyiv’s main backers, including Germany, France and Britain, issued a statement affirming their commitment to Ukraine and pushing back against provisions in the plan that would strip the country of territory and limit the size of its armed forces.
Ukraine’s allies in Europe, as well as Canada and Japan, are willing to work on the peace plan “despite some reservations,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, who is in Johannesburg for the Group of 20 summit, said on social media on Sunday.
“However, 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,” he said.
Many Ukrainians have also said that to accept the peace proposal would amount to surrender.
Ukrainian and American officials said they had made good progress on Sunday in talks about a controversial U.S. plan to end the war with Russia, even as President Trump lashed out at Ukrainian leaders accusing them of ingratitude.
The talks, held in Geneva, convened ahead of a Thursday deadline — set by Mr. Trump — for Ukraine to agree to the 28-point peace plan. The draft proposal contained many conditions that Ukraine has long rejected as unacceptable, including surrendering territory, slashing the size of its army and giving up some types of weaponry.
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