Senator Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said on Saturday that a 28-point proposal that administration officials have described as President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine was, instead, a Russian wish list for peace negotiations.
Rounds said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio called him and other members of a Senate delegation at the Halifax Security Forum in Canada on Saturday and disclosed the mistake.
“He made it clear we are the recipients of a recommendation,” Rounds said. “It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan.”
Rounds added that, according to Rubio, President Trump’s demand that Ukraine agree to the 28-point plan by Thanksgiving Day or lose U.S. intelligence and military support was no longer in effect. It was not clear if President Trump realized that the 28-point list, which was given to presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, was seen as a list of Russian demands.
“With regard to the discussion that there would be threats of items taken … information being withheld and so forth — Secretary Rubio did say that he was not aware of any of that.”
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Angus King, I-Maine, said Rubio told them the same thing on phone conversations on Saturday.
“The leaked 28-point plan, which, according to Secretary Rubio, is not of the administration’s position — it is essentially the wish list of the Russians,” King said.
Rubio, who is traveling to Geneva for talks on Ukraine, later posted on X that the list was written by the Administration. “The peace proposal was authored by the U.S,” he wrote. “It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
State Department Deputy Spokesman Tommy Pigot said on X that the senators’ statements were “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,” Pigot wrote.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., in an interview with MS NOW, criticized the apparent error and Trump’s demand that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accept the 28-point list by Thanksgiving.
“This is a process that can only be described as haphazard, sloppy, even reckless,” Sen. Coons said. “So, this proposal, which is tantamount to capitulation, and the reported threats against Ukraine to try and coerce them into accepting this terrible deal, if true, would be the sign of some very bad negotiating.”
Coons said that a European official pointed out to him and Rounds during a bilateral meeting in Halifax that “there were a number of awkward phrases or unexpected uses of terminology” that suggested it had been translated from Russian to English.
“There was a conversation in at least one of our meetings, our bilateral meetings, with a European delegation,” Sen. Coons said, “that the language of the proposal seemed to have been translated from Russian to English.”
Coons called on Republicans in Congress to pressure Trump to support Ukraine.
“I think it’s time for Republicans to speak out publicly and, to not just privately, express their concern and their support for Ukraine,” he said. “There might yet be time for us to save the brave millions of Ukrainians who have been sacrificing and serving during these long years of war as they have fended off Russia’s aggression.”
Earlier, Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who rarely criticizes Donald Trump, said that the 28-point plan rewards “one of the world’s most flagrant war criminals.” Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called it “a capitulation” to Vladimir Putin, and said the Russian leader “has spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool.” And Sen. Tom Tillis, R-N.C., called the proposal a win for Putin that should be reversed.
“Vladmir Putin is a murderer, a rapist and an assassin,” Tillis said. “There is no quarter for a human being like that.”
The Republican criticism of Trump’s latest peace plan in the long-running conflict between Russia and Ukraine is one sign that the White House overture is on politically shaky ground. The plan essentially demands that Ukraine cede territory, substantially reduce its army and eliminate some of its arms.
And it opens the door to questions about what Trump will do if Zelenskyy, as widely expected, fails to accept the peace plan by Thanksgiving Day as the U.S president has demanded.
Asked by a reporter as he left the White House on Saturday if the plan was his final offer, Trump replied, “No, not my final offer.”
Asked if he would end U.S. military and intelligence support for Ukraine if Zelensky failed to agree, Trump mocked the Ukrainian leader, “Then he can continue to fight his little heart out.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Confusion about what comes next
At a meeting of U.S., Ukrainian, Canadian and European officials on Saturday at the Halifax International Security Forum expressed widespread confusion about what will happen if Zelenskyy rejects the plan.
Critics called the proposal a rushed effort by Trump to continue his drive to win the Nobel Peace Prize. But there was uniform agreement that it would be foolish for Zelenskyy to reject the plan outright and risk angering Trump. The United States has been Ukraine’s primary benefactor as it defends itself from Russia’s invasion four years ago.
What Trump’s proposal actually entails remains unclear. The exact text of the plan, which presidential envoy Steve Witkoff brokered with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Miami and without Ukrainian involvement remains secret. American senators and European officials alike said they have only heard about the contents of the plan, which was first leaked to Axios, from press reports.
Officials and foreign policy experts, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of retaliation from Trump, said they had given up trying to predict what the president might do if Thursday ends without a peace deal. One U.S. senator, asked if he had any sense, replied, “None, none whatsoever.”
Trump has toggled between threatening Ukraine and warning Russia about imminent sanctions and other punishment if the warring leaders don’t agree on a path to ending hostilities. The U.S. president is known for issuing dramatic ultimatums on a range of issues and then standing down. But finding a means to end the war has frustrated Trump, who over the summer said he was “very angry” with Putin.
Officials and experts said that Trump’s most powerful leverage against Ukraine’s government would be to stop providing U.S. intelligence that helps Ukrainian forces conduct long-range missiles and drone strikes against Russian facilities and forces.
Ukrainian officials said such a move would not impact Ukrainian forces on the front line who have learned to use drones to detect Russian attacks or troop movements. Drones now account for 80% of Ukrainian attacks on Russian forces, compared to long-range artillery and rockets.
Trump could also halt a program he started where American weapons are sold to European countries, which are then provided to Ukraine. But analysts said that was unlikely since Trump supports the weapons sales, which aid U.S. defense firms and allow U.S. forces to purchase newer weapons.
The dynamic that could drive Trump, some observers predicted, is domestic politics. If a large number of Republicans criticize the president, he could temper his stance on Ukraine.
Despite some vocal criticism, other Republicans appeared hesitant to defy Trump. Sen. John Hoeven R-N.D,, said at the Halifax conference that he didn’t expect Ukraine to accept the current plan. He declined, though, to criticize Trump.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misattributed a quotation to Sen. Mike Rounds. It was said by Sen. Angus King.
David Rohde
David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.