Authored by the US
Rubio asserted the proposal “was authored by the US.”
“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,” he said Saturday.
But Shaheen said she and Rounds spoke to the top US diplomat while he was en route to Geneva for the latest negotiations with Ukrainian officials.
Rounds said Rubio was “very frank” during their call.
“It doesn’t look like normally something that would come out of our government, particularly the way it was written. It looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with,” Rounds said.
King noted that the plan should not reward Moscow for its invasion.
“Everyone wants this war to end but we want it to end on a fair and just peace that respects the integrity and the sovereignty of Ukraine and does not reward aggression and also provides adequate security guarantees,” he said.
Earlier Saturday, other US senators including some in Trump’s Republican party criticized Washington’s plan.
“We will not achieve that lasting peace by offering (Russian President Vladimir) Putin concession after concession and fatally degrading Ukraine’s ability to defend itself,” the group of senators wrote in a statement.
Senator Mitch McConnell, a veteran Republican, said “rewarding Russian butchery would be disastrous to America’s interests.”
Writing on X, he said that Putin has “spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool.”
Since the Russian invasion began in 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to keep Kyiv’s territory intact.
In a Friday address to the nation, Zelensky said Ukraine faces one of the most challenging moments in its history, adding that he would propose “alternatives” to Trump’s proposal.
