European countries propose radically different Ukraine peace plan from Trump’s version

European countries on Sunday proposed a radical alternative Ukraine peace plan, which rejects some of the pro-Russian points made in the original US-backed document, and calls for Kyiv’s sovereignty to be respected.

The counter-proposal emerged as American, Ukrainian and international negotiators met in Switzerland. The 28-point US document leaked last week demands Ukraine hands over territory to Russia, limits the size of its army and agrees not to pursue the Kremlin for alleged war crimes.

As discussions began in Geneva, Donald Trump claimed Ukraine had shown “zero gratitude” for US efforts to end the conflict. In a conciliatory tweet, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was “personally” grateful to the US president for the military assistance America had given – beginning with Javelin missiles – which had saved Ukrainian lives.

Trump’s hostile rhetoric came after a confusing weekend in which the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, admitted the White House plan was conceived in Moscow, only to then insist the US was its “author”.

Having been blindsided last week by the US’s diplomatic initiative, Ukraine’s European allies published their own Kyiv-friendly version on Sunday. It says negotiations over territory should take place after a ceasefire is agreed and should start from the line of contact – the existing frontline.

It adds that both parties will agree how the truce is to be monitored “under US supervision”. Unlike the White House text, the European alternative does not call for Kyiv to withdraw from cities it controls in the eastern Donbas. Nor does it rule out Ukraine’s membership of Nato, but points out there is no consensus over its membership.

There are further eye-catching proposals. They include that the Russians give the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station to the international atomic energy agency, which would split power 50-50 between Moscow and Kyiv. Ukraine’s army would be capped during peacetime at 800,000 soldiers, 200,000 more than in the US draft.

Additionally, frozen Russian assets would be used to reconstruct Ukraine, rather than being partly given to US investors. If Russia respects a “sustainable peace”, sanctions imposed on Russia from 2014 would be gradually eased, and it would be brought back into the G8.

At the G20 summit on Saturday in South Africa, European leaders signalled that the White House’s peace formula needed “additional work”. On Sunday Poland’s president, Donald Tusk, expressed reservations, saying: “It would be good to know for sure who is the author of the plan and where was it created.”

The document was drawn up by Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin’s envoy, together with Trump’s special representative, Steve Witkoff. Speculation based on the use of language in the plan suggests it may have been written in Russian and later translated into English.

A group of US senators said Rubio told them the text was not an American one. It was, they said, a Russian document deliberately leaked by Moscow which the US then passed on to Ukraine. Rubio later insisted the US did “author” the proposal, with “input” from Russia and Ukraine.

Amid a backlash from some Republican senators, Trump rowed back from his earlier demand that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, sign off on the deal by this Thursday. Speaking in Washington, the US president said it was “not my final offer”, opening the door to significant changes.

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, heads to talks in Geneva on the US-led peace plan. Photograph: Elodie Le Maou/AFP/Getty Images

On Sunday Rubio and Witkoff arrived in Geneva together with the US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, who held talks last week with Zelenskyy in Kyiv. They met a Ukrainian delegation led by Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak. Afterwards, Rubio described the talks in positive terms as “very very meaningful”. Earlier, the Kyiv team spoke with officials from France, Germany and the UK, including Keir Starmer’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell.

In private conversations, European officials have been scathing about the US draft. They say it undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty and sets conditions for its EU accession. If accepted, it would set a dangerous global precedent, they argue. It also rules out a French and British-led peacekeeping force for Ukraine and limits where Nato aircraft could be based.

One official said Putin was trying to turn back the clock 30 years on Europe’s security architecture and to enforce demands made shortly before his all-out invasion. Russia’s president called for Nato’s military forces to withdraw to their 1997 borders, before the Baltic states and central Europe joined the defensive transatlantic alliance.

The European counter-proposal will be welcomed by Zelenskyy, who has come under enormous pressure to bend to American demands. Last week he said his country faces an impossible choice between betraying national interests and losing a major ally in the shape of Washington. “The bloodshed must be stopped, and we must ensure that the war is never reignited,” he wrote on Sunday.

Olexiy Haran, a professor of comparative politics at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, said Ukrainians overwhelmingly rejected the Trump document and would support the European one. “Freezing the frontline is a difficult compromise for us but one a majority would back,” he said, adding there was no support for giving land to Russia.

He added: “Any peace deal isn’t about Zelenskyy. Ultimately it’s about the Ukrainian people and their understanding of Ukraine as a nation. We definitely can’t allow all these crazy points in this Trump so-called peace plan.”