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The United States (US) has pushed back against claims from a bipartisan group of senators that Washington’s proposed 28-point framework for ending the war in Ukraine is merely a “Russian wish list,” insisting that the document reflects official US policy.
The disagreement has injected fresh uncertainty into an already fraught diplomatic effort, with negotiators set to convene in Switzerland on Sunday. President Donald Trump has been pressing Ukraine to accept the proposal within days — despite widespread criticism that the terms heavily favour Moscow, including demands that Kyiv surrender territory, scale down its military, and abandon any future NATO membership.
Speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Senators Mike Rounds (Republican), Angus King (Independent), and Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat) said Secretary of State Marco Rubio privately told them the plan was not produced by the US government. According to their account, Rubio said the proposal originated from a Russian intermediary and was handed to Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.
“What he told us was that this was not the American proposal,” Rounds said. “It was a proposal… representing Russia. It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan.”
King echoed the concern, saying the leaked document appeared to be “essentially the wish list of the Russians” and should not be treated as the official US position.
However, Rubio publicly contradicted the senators on Saturday, saying the framework “was authored by the US” and was constructed using input from both Russia and Ukraine. “It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations,” he said.
Shaheen and Rounds insisted Rubio gave a different account in private while travelling to Geneva for discussions with Ukrainian officials. Rounds added that the document “looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with.”
Criticism of the plan has also come from within Trump’s own Republican Party. Senior lawmakers warned against making concessions that would undermine Ukraine’s security or reward Russian aggression. Senator Mitch McConnell said granting Moscow territorial gains would be “disastrous to America’s interests,” adding that Putin had “spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has repeatedly vowed not to surrender territory, said on Friday that Ukraine was facing one of the most difficult periods in its modern history. He said Kyiv would put forward its own “alternatives” to Washington’s proposal.
Trump said the document was not his “final offer” but insisted he intended to stop the fighting “one way or the other.”
