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Former President Trump remarked this past weekend that the Russian-prepared peace plan was not his ultimate proposal, after strong backlash from Ukraine's leaders and commentators who compared it to a Munich pact of 1938 between Chamberlain and Hitler.

During short remarks from the White House, the US president told journalists: "We’d like to get to peace. This should have occurred earlier … we’re trying to get it ended, in any case it must be resolved."

Forthcoming Geneva Negotiations Include Multiple Countries

Ukrainian and American officials are scheduled to meet in Geneva on Sunday to discuss this proposal. Security officials from France, Britain and Germany will also participate in the talks there.

Ahead of the talks, US senators informed media outlets that State Department head Marco Rubio reached out to them during his travel to Switzerland to clarify the details of the leaked plan. According to him, this plan did not originate from the administration but rather a "wish list of the Russians", according to Senator Angus King, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Zelenskyy Faces Crucial Deadline

Nevertheless, Trump has given Zelenskyy until Thursday for signing this multi-point agreement. It calls on Kyiv to give up land it currently controls to Russia, downsize the size of its army, and relinquish long-range weapons. It also excludes international peacekeepers and penalties for Russian war crimes.

During a solemn speech on Friday, Zelenskyy warned that Ukraine confronts an impossible choice in the near future involving keeping its national dignity and forfeiting a major partner like the United States. He admitted that it faces one of the most difficult moments in its history.

Ukrainian Dialogue Team Appointed for Upcoming Talks

Speaking this weekend, the president emphasized that genuine or respectable peace depends on assured safety and fairness. He revealed a negotiating team, established by presidential decree, which will meet its US counterparts in Geneva, led by top aide Yermak.

Another member from Ukraine's team, ex-defense head and security council official Rustem Umerov, said they will hold consultations with the US "on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement".

Suggesting limits, Umerov noted: Ukraine enters these talks with defined goals. This represents a continuation of recent discussions focused on harmonizing our plans for future actions."

Global Reaction and Criticism

The Ukrainian president has sought to participate positively with the US administration seemingly determined to resolve the war based on Russian conditions. He has emphasized he cannot give up the nation's independence or abandon the constitutional framework that enshrines the country’s current borders.

At a meeting held in South Africa, leaders from the G20 and the European Council issued a collective declaration opposing the proposed deal, saying it requires "additional work". It said that members of the EU and NATO would need to be consulted regarding certain clauses, which rule out Ukraine's NATO accession and impose terms on its future EU accession.

Public Views in Ukraine's Capital

Ukrainian reaction to the proposal, prepared by Putin’s envoy and a US delegate, have been largely negative. Analysts said it outlined a plan for further Russian aggression: targeting not just Ukraine but other European regions too.

Nayyem, a public figure who led Ukraine’s 2014 pro-democracy Maidan revolution, remarked it invited parallels with Chamberlain’s infamous Munich deal. Trumps’s peace plan came from the same "recognisable genre", where the affected party is asked "to formulate his own defeat so everyone else can live easier".

In a Facebook post, he said he was outraged by the complete pardon for Russian atrocities. This offended those who sought shelter in Bucha or Mariupol – where Russian troops executed hundreds of civilians – and families of deported children to Russian territory. "A rather cynical agreement," he stated.

In an interview in Kyiv’s Golden Gate metro station, Dmytro Sariskyi, 21, commented that Moscow had been trying to dominate Ukraine over many years. The agreement offered "barely anything" in the Trump agreement and continued to keep troops in Ukraine. "I think the deal is an attempt to break Ukraine and force unjust conditions on us," he remarked.

If Zelenskyy signed off on the proposals Kyiv would be forced to give up its freedoms, he added. If it didn’t, the US might cease collaboration and intelligence exchange, a crucial source of military intelligence for Ukraine's forces. Currently, there is no favorable solution, he noted.

Varied Perspectives from the Public

Another passenger, teenager Sofia Barchan, asserted that the country would remain resilient lacking US backing. "We will fight for as long as it takes. Our territory will remain our territory, including Crimea and the east. It belongs to Ukraine." She said that the president is intelligent and predicted he would not give up Ukrainian land.

While speaking during rainfall, next to a replica of Kyiv’s original medieval gate, Ivanovna said her appreciation to Trump for his attempts to broker peace. She suggested that Ukraine should be ready to give away Crimea and the eastern Donbas region temporarily if it meant maintaining US support. "President Zelenskyy should hold a referendum and ask the people," she said.

EU Leaders Condemn the Plan

Former European heads of state have strongly criticized the plan. Finland’s former prime minister Marin described it as a catastrophe, affecting not just Ukraine but for democracies worldwide. She warned if the west showed weakness and ignorance – similar to the 2014 Crimea annexation – further hostilities could arise.

The former prime minister of Belgium, Verhofstadt, referenced Churchill’s definition of an appeaser as "one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last". He added: "Trump now takes Putin’s side. Europe faces a choice between compromise and principles. Another moment of truth for our [European] union."