US insists it wrote Ukraine peace plan as doc dubbed Russian ‘want checklist’
A US senator has claimed the draft plan ‘looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with’.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has doubled down on America authoring the controversial peace plan to end conflict in Ukraine, hours after a group of his fellow lawmakers called it a “wish list of the Russians.”
The 28-point document, drafted by Trump devotees, is being pushed in Washington as the framework for securing peace in the war-ravaged nation. A senior US administration official told NBC the proposal is “aimed at providing both sides with security guarantees to ensure a lasting peace.”
The peace blueprint was shaped by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Or, according to a group of bipartisan US lawmakers on Saturday, the document was not the work of Washington at all.
NBC reported Republican senator Mike Rounds told press gathered at a security conference in Canada that the US ‘was not responsible for this release in its current form’.
“It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan,” he added.
“It is a proposal that was received, and as an intermediary, we have made arrangements to share it — and we did not release it. It was leaked.”
Rounds, along with a group of bipartisan US politicians at the conference, claimed Rubio had called them on Saturday and had told them as such.
The US senator added the draft plan “looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with” and dubbed it a Russian “wish list”.
US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott released a statement shortly thereafter, calling Rounds’ account of his phone call with Rubio ‘blatantly false’.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, he said: “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.”
Rubio also took to social media to set things straight about the 28-point plan.
“The peace proposal was authored by the US,” the US Secretary of State said.
“It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations.”
He added: “It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
The confusion over the draft peace agreement comes as international leaders prepare for crunch talks on Ukraine today at the G20 summit in South Africa, shunned by Donald Trump, where they rejected parts of the US President’s peace plan.
The US President handed war-torn Ukraine just days to respond to the deal to end the conflict with Russia. But UK PM Keir Starmer and other international leaders said the plan, which involves surrendering territory and cutting Kyiv’s army, needs “additional work”.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country could face a stark choice between standing up for its sovereign rights and preserving the US support it needs.
