Trump Administration Live Updates: President Calls Ukraine Ungrateful as U.S. Officials Push for Peace Deal
Where Things Stand
Peace talks: U.S. and Ukrainian officials were meeting in Geneva on Sunday, according to a U.S. official, to discuss a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine. The talks are part of the Trump administration’s attempts to pressure Kyiv to accept the proposal, which contains provisions that Ukraine has long rejected, including ceding land it currently holds and limiting the size of its military.
Trump criticism: As the officials met, President Trump said in a post 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. Trump has given President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine until Thursday to agree to the peace plan, though he said on Saturday that it was not his final offer. Read more ›
Ukraine plan: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the United States had “authored” the 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. Read more ›
Representative Michael McCaul said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday morning that he spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday night and that the secretary said 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 added. “Rubio did say on the call that this is a United States document with input from Ukraine and from Russia. About 80% of this deal, I think, they’re going to find agreement with as they go to Geneva. The problem is going to be the 20% of 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 sat down for talks in Switzerland on Sunday as part of President Trump’s push to get Kyiv to accept a peace plan to end its war with Russia.
Mr. Trump has set a deadline of Thursday for Ukraine to agree to the 28-point peace plan that was drafted without input from Kyiv or its European allies. The proposal contains many conditions that Ukraine has long rejected as nonstarters, including surrendering territory, slashing the size of its army and giving up some types of weaponry.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, were meeting on Sunday with Ukraine’s delegation at the U.S. mission in Geneva, according to a U.S. official. Daniel Driscoll, the Army secretary, was also participating in the talks, the official added, saying that the discussions would include “more formal engagements with the U.S. leaders and Ukrainians to continue ironing out the peace agreement.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that Kyiv’s delegation — led by Andriy Yermak, his chief of staff — was “focused on working as constructively as possible on the steps proposed by the United States.”
“We are working to ensure that the path toward ending the war is real and that the principled elements are put into action,” he added in a statement.
Mr. Yermak struck a similar tone, saying that he had met with senior British, French and German officials in Geneva ahead of the meeting with the American delegation.
“We are in a very constructive mood,” he wrote on social media.
Many Ukrainians have dismissed the U.S. plan as a capitulation offer, given that it echoes longstanding Kremlin demands.
There also seemed to be continued confusion about the plan, including among lawmakers. A group of U.S. senators claimed on Saturday that Mr. Rubio had told them that the document “was not the administration’s plan” but a “wish list of the Russians.”
The State Department said that was “blatantly false,” and Mr. Rubio also rejected the characterization, writing on social media that “the peace proposal was authored by the U.S.”
“It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations,” he added. “It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s European allies have been scrambling to respond to a plan that had largely excluded them and to demonstrate their continued support for Kyiv.
A joint statement on Saturday signed by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and other countries said the U.S. proposal was a starting point for discussions and called for “additional work.” The leaders urged changes to the plan’s most objectionable points for Ukraine, including a cap on the size of Kyiv’s military.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, reasserted that point in a statement on Sunday.
“As a sovereign nation there cannot be limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces that would leave the country vulnerable to future attack,” and thus undermine European security, she said.
There was no immediate comment on Sunday from the Kremlin about the talks in Geneva. An American official had earlier said plans for separate talks between the United States and Russia were underway.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who has offered to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, said he expected to speak to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia about the peace efforts on Monday.
While Mr. Trump has said he wants Ukraine’s response to the peace plan by Thursday, he has left open the possibility that the deadline could be extended “if things are working well.”
And when asked by reporters on Saturday whether this was his “final offer” on Ukraine, Mr. Trump said “No.”
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