How Rubio Tried to Bring a Pro-Russia Peace Plan to Middle Ground
How Rubio Tried to Bring a Pro-Russia Peace Plan to Middle Ground
While President Trump attacked the Ukrainians, Secretary of State Marco Rubio flew to Geneva to seize control of negotiations that were going off the rails.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/us/politics/trump-russia-ukraine-peace-plan-middle-ground.html
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By any measure, the administration’s rollout of the new plan was maladroit at best. The White House was taken by surprise by the leak of its details, first described by Axios. Mr. Rubio downplayed the proposal last Wednesday as “a list of potential ideas,” while Mr. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, embraced it.
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When their comments were reported, it seemed like confirmation that the Russians had played a major role in composing the language. Suddenly, Mr. Rubio found himself denying that he had ever told the senator that the document was essentially a Russian draft. He called back to Mr. Rounds, and others, insisting that they had misinterpreted his remarks.
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“We began from the early stage of this process with our understanding of the Russian position as had been communicated to us in numerous ways,” he said in Geneva on Sunday. He said that included verbal and informal written proposals sent to the State Department that are called “nonpapers.” He insisted the same was done with the Ukrainians, though it is unclear when that happened.
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He excised — for now — sections that would forever bar Ukraine from joining NATO and that banned NATO member states from forming a security force inside Ukraine that would deter Russia from launching a new invasion.
When asked about the presence of a sanctioned Russian diplomat during discussions, Rubio said, “Well, obviously the Russians get a vote here, right?”
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