Trump says Ukraine peace plan offer not final as US, Ukrainian officials to meet in Geneva
President Donald Trump said Saturday his proposed peace deal is not his final offer to Ukraine, underscoring that his administration is pushing hard to end the war. The White House has given Kyiv a Thanksgiving deadline to accept the terms or risk losing U.S. support. But European leaders are voicing concern over provisions that would require Ukraine to cede territory to Russia and limit the size of its military. Asked by reporters Saturday whether this was his last offer, Trump replied, “No.” “We’d like to get to peace,” Trump said. “One way or another we’ll get it ended.”
Trump’s remarks came as the administration is sending top officials overseas to push for the proposal.
A U.S. delegation that includes Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and envoy Steve Witkoff will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, with a Ukrainian delegation, a top U.S. official told ABC News Saturday.
Additionally, the official said there are plans for the U.S. delegation to hold a separate meeting with a Russian delegation. No details were provided about the location of the planned meeting with the Russians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said Saturday that “consultations on steps to end the war will take place in the coming days.”
“Yesterday, the President of Ukraine approved the composition of the Ukrainian delegation and the directives for the relevant talks,” the president’s office said in a statement posted on social media. “We anticipate constructive work and are ready to advance as swiftly as possible to achieve a real peace.”
“Ukraine never wanted this war and will make every effort to end it with a dignified peace,” the statement continued. “Ukraine will never be an obstacle for peace, and the representatives of the Ukrainian state will defend legitimate interests of the Ukrainian people and the foundations of European security. We are grateful for our European partners’ willingness to help.”
Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a post Saturday, “we are starting consultations between high-ranking officials of Ukraine and the United States on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement in Switzerland.”
Earlier this week, the White House presented Kyiv with a new 28-point peace plan drawn up in coordination with Moscow that contains conditions that are widely seen in Ukraine as effectively demanding the country’s capitulation.
Driscoll and Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George led an American delegation to Kyiv on Wednesday, with a U.S. official confirming to ABC News that the group was read in on the new peace plan. The U.S. military officials are the most senior delegation to visit Ukraine since President Donald Trump took office in January.
“Since the first days of the war, we have taken one, extremely simple position: Ukraine needs peace,” Zelenskyy said in his Friday evening address. “And a real peace — one that will not be broken by a third invasion.”
Driscoll met with Zelenskyy for an hour on Thursday and discussed “a collaborative plan to achieve peace in Ukraine,” according to a U.S. official.
“This is a comprehensive plan to end the war,” the official said of the plan, which was described as a collaboration between the U.S. and Ukraine.
The plan includes a number of maximalist demands that the Kremlin has long demanded and that have been previously dismissed as non-starters for Kyiv, including that Ukraine cut its armed forced by more than half and cede swaths of territory not yet occupied by Russia, according to a Ukrainian official.
Ukraine would also be forbidden from possessing long-range weapons, while Moscow would retain virtually all the territory it has occupied — and receive some form of recognition of its 2014 seizure of Crimea under the latest proposed U.S. plan.
Several foreign allies expressed criticism and concern over the U.S.’s proposal.
European Union leaders, joined by the Canadian and Japanese prime ministers, released a joint statement from the G20 summit in South Africa saying says the proposal “includes important elements that will be essential for a just and lasting peace.”
The statement singles out Ukraine having to cede land to Russia and limit the size of its military as two main issues in the plan.
However, they added that they see it as “a basis which will require additional work.”
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira and Oleksiy Pshemyskiy contributed to this report.