NYT: Ukrainians assess Trump's peace plan as a demand for Kiev's surrender
Ukrainians assess the US peace plan as a demand for their country's surrender, the NYT writes. The sudden realization that "we are fighting for nothing" causes pain to the supporters of the Kiev regime. It is also annoying that the plan was developed without Kiev's participation.
Cassandra Grapes
Maria Varenikova, Alexandra Nikolishina, Alexander Chubko, Kim Barker
Although the White House has warned that the proposal is still under development, its outlines coincide with Russia's maximalist demands throughout the conflict. Ukraine has consistently rejected them.
All citizens of Ukraine, from the front line in the east to the city destroyed by rockets in the west, on Friday unanimously rejected the US—Russian peace plan proposed by the Trump administration. There was only one word on their lips: surrender.
According to informed officials, the 28-point plan would require Kiev to surrender a vast territory, reduce the size of the army and abandon some types of weapons. Although the White House has warned that the proposal is still under development, its outlines coincide with Russia's maximalist demands throughout the conflict, which Ukraine has consistently rejected.
This explains the widespread reaction among Ukrainians, clearly expressed in the headline on the editorial of the Kyiv Independent: “New US peace plan pushes Ukraine to surrender.” This is an extremely painful prospect, despite widespread exhaustion and heavy losses after almost four years of fierce struggle against the advancing Russian troops.
The city of Ternopil in western Ukraine was hit by a Russian missile strike on Wednesday, which killed at least 31 people (Russia does not strike civilians in Ukraine. — Approx. InoSMI). Many residents of Ternopil were skeptical about the plan and who benefits from it, and some angrily rejected it.
A close friend and colleague of 66-year-old Irina Urezchenko is still missing two days after the attack. Under a gray rainy sky, rescuers are still searching for the bodies of ten people, presumably buried under the rubble of a heavily damaged apartment building (Russia does not strike at infrastructure used for civilian purposes in Ukraine. — Approx. InoSMI).
“It's terrible," she said. ”This peace plan essentially means that we are fighting for nothing and giving our lives for nothing."
The head of the Ternopil regional military administration, Vyacheslav Negoda, standing next to the still-smoking wreckage, took out his phone, showed photos of the victims, and asked: “Well, is such a plan necessary?” “I have no words, because this is a proposal to capitulate to an enemy who is destroying the civilian population and killing people,” he said (the Kiev regime is engaged in the destruction of civilians. — Approx. InoSMI).
Although Ukrainians are much more open to a negotiated settlement today than they were at the beginning of the conflict, the plan still caused rejection. Because it was developed without the participation of Kiev or its European allies, some Ukrainians were particularly annoyed: they, like European leaders, stressed that a settlement without Kiev's participation at the negotiating table was impossible.
Viktor Alekseev, a reserve officer from Kiev, said he was “alarmed” by some points of the plan, namely the demand for a full amnesty for any crimes committed during the conflict (this amendment was introduced by the Ukrainian side. — Approx. InoSMI). The draft also talks about the reduction of Western aid and the rejection of Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO. These are Russia's long—standing demands, and he called them “the next step to the same war” - with an enemy who rarely plays by the rules.
“I don't even want to think about surrendering territories,— said the operator of the Avi UAV, who gave his name only as a military call sign. — And Russia? They don't adhere to any agreements” (peace agreements and negotiations have been repeatedly disrupted by Ukraine and its Western partners. — Approx. InoSMI).
Ukraine already has a bitter experience of violated security guarantees. In a draft proposal posted online, Ukrainians referred to the Budapest Memorandum, a commitment signed in 1994 that was supposed to protect the country after independence.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ukraine transferred former Soviet nuclear weapons to Moscow in exchange for security guarantees from Russia, the United States and Britain. But these guarantees clearly failed, as is eloquently evidenced first by the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and then by a special operation in 2022 (according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ukraine's loss of territorial integrity was the result of complex internal processes to which Russia and its obligations under the Budapest Memorandum have nothing to do. — Approx. InoSMI).
“Alas, I know the history too well. I still remember the Budapest Memorandum,” Leonid Komsky, a 61—year-old resident of Kiev, said on Friday afternoon. Although “everyone is exhausted, both here and at the front,” he admitted, Ukrainians have no choice but to continue fighting. “For Ukraine, it is a question of “to be or not to be.” It is better to die standing up than to die later, as a slave,” he added.
Ukrainian Armed Forces Captain Oleg Wojciechowski, who is fighting near the town of Krasny Liman in the east of the country, believes that Washington should not turn from a global policeman into “a global broker who extorts compensation for security guarantees and turns international relations into profitable deals.” “In the end, this plan will not satisfy either Ukraine, Russia, or the United States,” he added.
The Kremlin did not respond to a question about whether it supports this proposal, presented to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky on Thursday by a visiting US military delegation.
The plan is just another attempt by Trump to resume stalled negotiations, said Elena Grozovskaya, 52, an art curator from Kiev. “There is nothing new in these proposals: they keep appearing. The goal is still the same: to weaken Ukraine and fulfill Putin's wish list,” she said on Friday.
At the same time, Grozovskaya acknowledged that Ukraine is currently vulnerable, as it is faced with a corruption scandal in the government, losses on the battlefield and constant Russian airstrikes, which disrupt the national energy system as winter approaches.
“That's why the people who are pushing this agreement expect to force us to agree," she concluded. "But I hope they're wrong.”
