United States President Donald Trump called his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyj, and his government “ungrateful” for Washington’s efforts in the war with Russia, while in Geneva representatives of his administration met with a delegation from Kiev and senior European officials to discuss the 28-point peace plan that the United States has presented to resolve the conflict.
In a long message on his social network Truth, Trump launches a series of denunciations about the behavior of the United States’ partners in war, which, as he is wont to do every time he mentions it, he reminds us that it did not begin under his command. In addition to criticizing the Ukrainian government, the American president recalls – as he has done on other occasions – that European countries continue to purchase oil from Moscow, which has the energy sector as the great engine of its economy and its defense industry. “The Ukrainian ‘leadership’ has expressed no gratitude for our efforts, and Europe continues to buy crude oil from Russia,” he writes in capital letters.
Meanwhile, “the United States continues to sell enormous quantities of weapons to NATO for distribution in Ukraine”, says Trump, who has given Kiev until Thursday to respond to a peace plan that includes the main Russian demands to end the fighting: control of the eastern Donbas region – including the territory now in Ukrainian hands – and the drastic reduction of the armed forces of the invaded country. Another requirement is Kiev’s perpetual refusal to join the Atlantic Alliance.
If Zelensky and his government did not accept the ultimatum, the United States would withdraw its military support, including the intelligence cooperation that Ukraine needs at all costs to protect itself from Russian attacks and plan its military strategy. Despite the pressure, Trump stressed in press statements on Saturday that the plan on the table was not his “final proposal.”
After the plan was leaked to the press in the middle of this week, the US administration presented the document as its own proposal, prepared by the White House special envoy for international conflicts, Steve Witkoff.
This Saturday, a group of senators assured that the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, had explained to them that the text was a “wish list” of Russia. The State Department has denied those claims. Rubio leads, together with Witkoff, the American representation at the negotiations in Geneva this Sunday.
In the statements to the program Meet the press On NBC, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed the opinion that peace negotiations will move forward, but stressed that this depends on Kiev’s response. “Ultimately the decision is up to the Ukrainians,” the senior official said.
European leaders attending the G-20 summit this weekend in Johannesburg found that the proposal, as it stands, is insufficient and needs “further work”.
The alleged “ingratitude” of Zelenskyj and his government is one leitmotif on the list of complaints Trump makes about the war in Ukraine. In the first face-to-face meeting between the two during the second Republican mandate, last February in the Oval Office, the American president and his deputy, JD Vance, humiliated the Ukrainian with an alleged outburst in which they reproached him, among other things, for not having shown gratitude for the help that the United States had given him.
“You don’t have what it takes” to win, Trump then blurted out, in a phrase he recalled again this week to urge Ukraine to accept the peace plan.
