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After more than three years of war, President Trump proposed a peace plan for Russia and Ukraine in late April that would have the United States recognize Moscow’s 2014 takeover of the Crimean peninsula. Michael D. Shear, a former White House correspon…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there are reasons to be optimistic, but also asserted there are “other issues” on which the administration wants to spend its energy.
The United States has been pushing Ukraine to accept a peace plan that seems in part a gift to Moscow. But the short meeting of the leaders, and subsequent comments, appeared to be a change in tone.
Many of President Trump’s actions have been seen as benefiting Russia either directly or indirectly, so much so that Russian officials have celebrated some of his moves.
A new U.S. peace plan offered to Russia and Ukraine proposes American recognition of the peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014.
In Ukraine, memories of Russia’s annexation are fresh and resentments run high, leaving the country’s president few choices on the latest American peace plan.
Planned diplomatic talks on Wednesday have been scaled back, raising new doubts about progress toward a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.
The U.S. proposal would freeze territory along the current front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which Ukraine has rejected.
The decision by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to pull out of the meeting and an objection by Ukraine’s leader to a key U.S. proposal raised questions about the state of the negotiations.
Bitterness has greeted suggestions that occupied territory will have to be ceded to Russia: “It’s like ripping off a man’s arm or leg and then saying, ‘Let it be as it is.’”