From the Politico:
"Europe to Trump: Your Ukraine peace plan is no plan at all
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff’s ceasefire blueprint is a blow to dismayed Europeans who thought Trump finally understood that you can’t trust Putin
Under the terms of the outline agreement reported by various international media outlets, Ukraine would be forced to give up occupied territory in the east of the country, cut its military in half, and surrender some powerful weapons.
“For any peace plan to succeed, it has to be supported by Ukraine and it has to be supported by Europe,” Kallas told reporters in Brussels on Thursday. “The pressure must be on the aggressor, not on the victim. Rewarding aggression will only invite more of it.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told European ministers at a private meeting in Brussels that it was obvious Russia had dictated the terms of the new proposals. “The bottom line is that any peace plan is not doable if it is based on appeasement of the aggressor,” he said, according to a person directly familiar with his remarks. “This could only bring more war and brutality to Ukraine and all of Europe.”...
Going nowhere
The news went down badly with officials in European capitals and in Zelenskyy’s government, not least because the proposed terms — once again — look likely to be heavily in Russia’s favor.
Kallas said no European minister had been involved in devising the Witkoff plan, noting that “we haven’t heard of any concessions on the Russian side.”
Less than a month ago, it seemed as if Trump had finally accepted that Russia’s leader was not to be trusted. When he announced sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil firms, Trump said: “Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere.”
But the points contained in the latest plan amount to handing Putin his key demands: Giving the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to Russia and cutting the size of Ukraine’s military.
Officials and diplomats, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, voiced their frustration with the Americans’ shift in approach back toward imposing a “bad deal” on Ukraine.
“Of course, this is worrying, but we need to stick to our position,” one EU diplomat said. “If Russia gets away with it, it’s only a matter of time before we see more Russian aggression in Ukraine, but also into EU and NATO member states.”
Putin’s wishlist
A senior European official familiar with the new 28-point proposal said it was just a list of “points to satisfy Putin” and was a very bad plan. “But the signals are that Ukrainians have to accept it,” the senior official said. “Kyiv is making it clear that putting pressure on Ukraine is unnecessary and won’t help anyone.”
Another senior European official said the timing of the latest White House effort is especially unfortunate given that Zelensky “is already hard pressed by military gains by Russia and the internal turmoil of the corruption scandal.”
Europeans are facing another stark realization: Their efforts to buy themselves a place at the negotiating table by agreeing to foot the bill for new defense aid going to Ukraine don’t appear to be working out.
“How do Europeans have so little agency here even when we’re now paying the entire bill?” the second senior European official said, calling the proposed concessions being asked of Ukraine “unreasonable.”..."
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