Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Russianisms in Trump's November peace plan reveal that it was, indeed, written by Russia

Commenting Trump's November 2025 "peace plan" that he relentlessly bullied Zelensky to accept, the Finnish Foreign Minister Valtonen said the proposals seem to have been written in Moscow.

This was most likely a rhetorical expression to draw attention on the pro-Russian nature of the plan, but it turns out that Ms. Valtonen was right in the most literal sense.

From the New Republic / Yahoo!News

"Trump’s Ukraine Peace Deal Appears to Be Translated From Russian

Hafiz Rashid

The U.S. peace plan presented to Ukraine appears to have been translated from Russian.

The syntax of certain phrases are more common in the Russian language, such as the third point of the 28-point plan: “It is expected that Russia will not invade neighbouring countries and Nato will not expand further.”

“It is expected” is not commonly used in English, but it is common in Russian and appears to come from the phrase ожидается or ozhidayetsya, according to The Guardian’s Luke Harding. Other words that appear to be translated from Russian include “ambiguities” (неоднозначности) and “to enshrine” (закрепить). 

It’s no accident, either: The plan was hammered out by President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Kirill Dmitriev, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, after the two met last month in Miami. While Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also involved, no Ukrainian or European officials were, which is pretty evident by its contents.

For example, under the proposal, Ukraine would cede Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk to Russia and would be banned from joining NATO. Russia would get readmitted to the G8. Ukraine would also reduce the size of its military by hundreds of thousands, and no NATO troops could be stationed in the country. Sanctions against Russia would also be lifted but would snap back if Russia invades Ukraine again.

It leaves Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a predicament of whether he should end the war quickly or risk accepting a deal that much of his country would reject. Unnamed Ukrainian officials have already called the plan “absurd” and “unacceptable,” as it seems very similar to Russia’s demands shortly after its 2022 invasion. It seems Trump is more interested in appeasing Russia than considering Ukraine’s needs."

*** 

I would just correct that it is not Ukraine's needs, it is Ukraine's rights, according to international law on which the world order is based. 

The Telegraph / Yahoo!News gives a sequel: 

"Trump peace plan ‘written by Russia’

Nick Squires

The Trump administration has denied claims that its peace plan for Ukraine was written by Russia and then translated clumsily into English.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, was forced to defend the plan, which has been harshly criticised for being deeply favourable to Moscow.

He insisted that he and the Trump administration were the authors of the plan but admitted that it was “based on input from the Russian side”.

Critics say the proposals – which include Ukraine ceding vast tracts of territory to Russia – read like a “wish list” for Vladimir Putin.

Meaghan Mobbs, the daughter of Lt Gen Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy to Ukraine who announced last week that he would quit his post, claimed that the peace plan was originally written in Russian.

Lt Gen Kellogg, a former national security adviser and retired general, has fallen out of favour with the Trump administration, which saw him as too sympathetic to Ukraine.

Ms Mobbs suggested that the document was “not originally written in English”, pointing to transliteration errors, Russian political vocabulary and phrasing that is commonly used by Moscow.

There was “no doubt” that it was originally written in Russian, she said.

Mike Rounds, a Republican senator from South Dakota, appeared to echo the claim, saying: “This administration was not responsible for this release in its current form. They want to utilise it as a starting point.”

He added: “It looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with.”

The allegations were roundly denied by Trump officials...

The 28-point list of proposals for ending the war includes drastically reducing the size of the Ukrainian military and prohibiting Ukraine from ever joining NATO...

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister and a fierce critic of the Trump-Russia plan, said on Sunday morning: “Together with the leaders of Europe, Canada and Japan, we have declared our readiness to work on the 28-point plan despite some reservations.

“However, before we start our work, it would be good to know for sure who is the author of the plan and where was it created.”

Donald Trump has given Kyiv a deadline of this Thursday to accept the plan, which has been widely criticised by US senators, including some Republicans.

They say it is heavily skewed towards Russia and would mean that Ukraine’s sacrifices made in blood would have been in vain.

“It rewards aggression. This is pure and simple. There’s no ethical, legal, moral, political justification for Russia claiming eastern Ukraine,” said Angus King, an independent senator from Maine and a member of the Senate foreign relations committee.

He compared the proposal to Neville Chamberlain’s Munich Pact with Adolf Hitler in 1938, a failed act of appeasement...

On Saturday, a group of US senators, all members of the foreign relations committee, issued a joint statement which said: “We share significant concerns over the details of the reported peace plan that has been released.

“For over 10 years, Russia has illegally occupied Ukrainian territory and for almost four years, Ukraine has admirably defended itself against Russia’s attempts to fully occupy Ukraine.

“No one wants a just and lasting peace more than the Ukrainian people. However, we will not achieve that lasting peace by offering Putin concession after concession and fatally degrading Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.”

On Saturday, Mr Trump said that the plan did not represent a “final offer” for Ukraine.

American officials and politicians are deeply concerned about a meeting last month in which representatives of the Trump administration met Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian envoy who is under US sanctions, to draft the plan to end the war, Reuters has reported.

The meeting took place in Miami at the end of October and included Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump’s special envoy, Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law, and Mr Dmitriev, who leads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, one of Russia’s largest sovereign wealth funds.

The meeting resulted in the 28-point plan for ending the war.

The plan came as a surprise to officials in various corners of the Trump administration, including inside the State Department and on the National Security Council, Reuters said.

There are “worries inside the administration and on Capitol Hill that Witkoff and Kushner skirted the inter-agency process and that the discussions with Dmitriev ... resulted in a plan that favours Russian interests” Reuters said.

Roger Wicker, a Mississippi senator and the Republican chairman of the Senate armed services committee, said: “This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am highly sceptical it will achieve peace.

“Ukraine should not be forced to give up its lands to one of the world’s most flagrant war criminals in Vladimir Putin.”"

 

 

 

 

 


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