European leaders have drafted a counter-proposal to the US peace plan, which also offers major concessions to Vladimir Putin. Ukraine and its European allies were rocked by revelations of a secret US-Russian peace deal.
The details of the 28-point plan were revealed in a major scoop by the news website Axios last week. Under its terms, Kyiv must cede control of the Donetsk region and cut the size of its army by half to 600,000, as well as being barred from NATO. Russia would be further rewarded by being readmitted to the G7 – a move that would allow it to rebuild its creaking economy.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump met in Alaska (Image: Getty)
Critics have blasted the deal, saying it amounts to little less than capitulation for Ukraine.
Many suspect that the plan was written and authored by Russian officials, a claim strenuously denied by the White House.
European leaders have been some of the most vocal in their criticisms of the plan, and have been scrambling to come up with an alternative that they claim would offer a “just peace”.
They appear, though, to have bowed to Trump and included in their counteroffer some of the same major concessions contained in the US-Russian version.
The Telegraph reports that the European deal invites Putin to rejoin the G7 and also agrees to cap the size of Ukraine’s army.
Instead of the 600,000 figure in the Trump version, European leaders have come up with a limit of 850,000. However, there is one major difference included in the European 24-point counteroffer, that British officials helped to draft.
It reportedly states that there should be no restriction on the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine. The Kremlin has said it would tolerate the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine to help keep the peace.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian and US officials met in Geneva on Sunday to discuss the Trump plan.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was at the meeting along with President Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrii Yermak.
In a brief statement to the press, Rubio said: “We’ve had probably the most productive and meaningful meeting so far in this entire process.”
