European countries reject Putin's proposal, which would like to offer Ukraine a suspension of weapons in exchange for giving him the Donetsk region. The governments of Great Britain, France, Germany, Ukraine and other countries have developed a response to the peace plan in the past week, presented after Putin's meeting with the Messenger of the White House Steve Witkoff – explains the New York daily.
Europe responds to Putin's proposal
Trump reacted to Putin's offer, giving up his own plan to impose additional sanctions on Russia and agreed to meet the Russian dictator, which is to take place on August 15 in Alaska. The President of Ukraine Wołodymyr Zelanski was not invited to this peak – reminds “WSJ”.
So Europeans decided to “draw a common red line together with Ukraine, which (…) must be taken into account during any possible negotiations with Russia,” reports the newspaper.
This proposal contains a requirement to suspend a weapon before any other steps are taken. He also says that the territories can only be transferred if it is a bilateral exchange, i.e. if Ukraine was to withdraw from certain regions, Russia would have to withdraw different territories.
The authors of the plan also decided that decisions regarding Ukraine must be made with the participation of Ukraine, and any territorial concessions on its part would have to be balanced by unconditional security guarantees for Kiev, including accession to NATO.
“You can't start the process (negotiations), departing territories during the fights,” said one of the European negotiators.
Continued article under video material
Americans saw a European proposal
The European project was presented to the US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoys of Trump – Keith Kellog and Steve Witkoff.
“WSJ” emphasizes that the proposal, resulting from the meeting of the Russian leader and Witkoff, which Trump then presented to European leaders in a misleading manner, caused in Europe a weekly “feverish diplomatic procedures” and attempts to explain what Putin really proposed. On Friday, European officials demanded the third telephone conversation with Witkoff, who finally explained that the Kremlin demanded the unilateral withdrawal of Ukraine from the Donetsk region.
– The proposal is much worse than what Trump gave in a telephone conversation (with leaders) – a European official told the journal.
“And when it finally became clear what Putin's real plan looks, he was immediately rejected by both Zelanski and European officials involved in these conversations,” says “WSJ” at the end.
Read more: We reveal the details of Donald Trump's peaceful proposals for Vladimir Putin. Moscow is to get a lot
