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Ex-leader Trump stated this past weekend that his Moscow-drafted peace plan was not his ultimate proposal, after intense reaction from Ukraine's officials and commentators who likened it to the 1938 Munich agreement involving Chamberlain and Hitler.

During brief remarks from the White House, the US president told journalists: Our goal is to achieve peace. This should have occurred earlier … we are attempting to conclude it, in any case we have to get it ended."

Forthcoming Switzerland Negotiations Involve Multiple Nations

US and Ukrainian officials are scheduled to meet in Switzerland this Sunday to discuss the plan. Security officials from Germany, France, and the UK will also participate in the talks in Geneva.

Ahead of these discussions, US senators informed media outlets that State Department head Marco Rubio reached out to them while en route to Switzerland to clarify the nature of this disclosed proposal. He said, this plan "was not the administration’s plan" but instead reflected Russian desires, as reported by independent Maine senator King, who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Ukraine's President Faces Crucial Deadline

Nevertheless, Trump has given Zelenskyy a deadline of Thursday for signing this multi-point agreement. The document requires Ukraine to cede land under its control to Russia, reduce the size of its army, and surrender long-range weapons. It also excludes a European peacekeeping force and sanctions for Russian war crimes.

In a sombre speech last Friday, the Ukrainian leader cautioned that Ukraine confronts an impossible choice in the near future between preserving its national dignity and losing a major partner in the shape of the US. He admitted that Ukraine is experiencing one of the most difficult moments historically.

Ukrainian Negotiating Delegation Formed for Geneva Meetings

Speaking on Saturday, the president emphasized that genuine or respectable peace was always based on assured safety and fairness. He revealed a negotiating team, established through a decree, which will meet its US counterparts in Switzerland, headed by his chief of staff Andriy Yermak.

A additional delegate of the Ukrainian delegation, former defence minister and national security council secretary Rustem Umerov, stated they will hold consultations with the US regarding potential terms for a peace deal.

Suggesting limits, Umerov added: Ukraine enters these talks with defined goals. This represents a continuation of recent discussions focused on harmonizing our plans for future actions."

International Reaction and Criticism

Zelenskyy has attempted to engage constructively with a White House seemingly determined to resolve the war on the Kremlin’s one-sided terms. He has made clear that he will not surrender the nation's independence or abandon the constitutional framework that protects the country’s current borders.

During a summit in South Africa, G20 leaders and EU representatives issued a collective declaration pushing back on the proposed deal, stating it requires "additional work". It said that members of the EU and NATO would need to be consulted on some of its provisions, which rule out Ukraine's NATO accession and put conditions on its European Union membership.

Citizen Opinion in Ukraine's Capital

Responses from Ukrainians to the text, drawn up by Putin’s envoy and Trump’s representative, has been overwhelmingly hostile. Commentators argued it was a blueprint for further Russian aggression: targeting not just Ukraine but of other parts of Europe too.

Mustafa Nayyem, a journalist and politician involved in the 2014 Maidan protests, said it invited parallels with Chamberlain’s infamous Munich deal. The proposal belonged to the same "recognisable genre", with the victim invited to outline its own surrender for broader convenience.

On social media, Nayyem said he was outraged by its "full" amnesty for Russian war crimes. It was an insult people who had hidden in basements in Bucha or Mariupol – where Russian troops executed hundreds of civilians – and for those whose children had been forcibly deported to Russia. "A rather cynical agreement," he stated.

In an interview in a Kyiv subway station, Sariskyi, 21, commented that Moscow had been trying to dominate Ukraine "for years". The agreement offered "barely anything" in the Trump agreement and maintained its forces on Ukrainian soil. In my view, this deal aims to undermine Ukraine and impose unfair terms, he said.

If Zelenskyy signed off on the proposals it would be compelled to sacrifice its liberties, he said. If it didn’t, the US would most likely break off cooperation and intelligence sharing, a vital resource of military intelligence for Ukraine's forces. "There is no good way out of this for now," he remarked.

Diverse Perspectives from the Public

Another passenger, teenager Sofia Barchan, asserted that the country would remain resilient lacking US backing. We will continue our struggle as needed. Our territory will remain our territory, including Crimea and the east. They are Ukrainian land." She said Zelenskyy was a "smart person" and predicted he would not cede territory.

While speaking in the rain, next to a replica of Kyiv’s original medieval gate, Ivanovna said she was grateful to the former US leader for his peace-making efforts. She suggested that Ukraine should be ready ceding certain regions temporarily if it meant keeping America as a partner. The president should conduct a public vote on this matter, she proposed.

European Leaders Criticize the Proposal

Former European heads of state have roundly condemned the plan. Finland’s former prime minister Sanna Marin called it a catastrophe, affecting not just Ukraine but for "all of the democratic world". She said if Western nations display vulnerability – as it did in 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea – "more aggression and conflicts" would follow.

The former prime minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, quoted Churchill’s definition of an appeaser as "one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last". He added: "Trump now takes Putin’s side. Europe faces a choice between compromise and principles. Another moment of truth for our [European] union."