A report from The Daily Telegraph describing a U.S. proposal to recognize Russia’s control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories as part of a Trump-led peace initiative has drawn strong criticism from allies and observers.
According to the Telegraph, U.S. President Donald Trump has sent his peace envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to Moscow to present the plan directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin—an approach that would represent a major departure from longstanding U.S. policy. The proposal would effectively acknowledge Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, despite serious misgivings among European partners.
“If this is true, then we have a major problem, Houston,” wrote Estonian lawmaker Marko Mihkelson, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the NATO member’s parliament, in a post on X.
Former U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican critic of Trump, reposted a message on X from Shaun Pinner, a former British soldier who fought for Ukraine, which said: “Watching Trump casually bargain away territory that isn’t even his to give feels like a deep betrayal.”
“If it’s true, if the US is willing to allow borders to be redrawn by force and let aggressors be rewarded, then the gates of hell are about to be opened,” Ukrainian former diplomat Maria Drutska wrote on X. “This may prove to be the single most destabilizing and conflict-spawning decision of the 21st century. A truly Black Friday.”
Newsweek has emailed the White House for comment.
The controversy coincides with mounting political turmoil in Kyiv. Andriy Yermak—chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine’s lead peace negotiator—resigned after his home was searched by anti-corruption investigators in a scandal tied to alleged kickbacks in the state energy sector.
In an interview with The Atlantic published on Thursday, Yermak insisted that surrendering land was not an option.
“As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us giving up territory. He will not sign away territory,” the former chief of staff said.
Despite this, Zelensky is under intensifying pressure to accept the U.S.-driven peace framework, even as European governments advance their own alternative.
Details of Trump’s 28-Point Peace Proposal
The U.S.-backed 28-point draft peace plan, circulated earlier this month, would require Ukraine to formally cede substantial territory—including Crimea and the entire Donbas region to Russia, even areas of Donbas that Moscow does not currently control. It would also “freeze” the status of Kherson Oblast and Zaporizhzhia Oblast along the existing front lines.
Under the draft, Ukraine would:
- Limit the size of its armed forces to 600,000 personnel
- Amend its constitution to permanently renounce NATO membership
- Accept a guarantee that NATO would never deploy troops on Ukrainian soil
In exchange, the proposal envisions:
- Security guarantees for Ukraine from the U.S., conditional on Kyiv’s adherence to the agreement
- A large-scale reconstruction effort financed in part by frozen Russian assets
- Long-term economic cooperation with Russia, including a pathway for Moscow to rejoin the Group of Eight (G8)
- Creation of a “Ukraine Development Fund” to rebuild infrastructure, industry and energy systems
Europe’s Alternative Framework
The counter-proposal drafted by the so-called E3 powers—the U.K., France and Germany—modifies several core elements of the U.S. 28-point blueprint.
It reasserts Ukraine’s sovereignty and rejects any pre-packaged territorial concessions. Rather than obliging Ukrainian forces to withdraw from cities they still hold in eastern Donbas, the European plan calls for territorial negotiations only after a ceasefire, using the current line of contact as the starting point.
Under the European draft:
- Ukraine would be allowed a larger peacetime military, capped at 800,000 troops rather than 600,000
- Kyiv’s future NATO membership would remain theoretically possible, with accession dependent on consensus among alliance members instead of being permanently prohibited
The European proposal also offers strong security guarantees and a major reconstruction program, with frozen Russian assets directed toward Ukraine’s recovery rather than being transferred to U.S. investors.
