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Leaders of some of the world’s most powerful countries pushed back on demands that Ukraine cede territory and limit the size of its army included in President Trump’s latest proposal to end the war with Russia. But they said they believed the plan provided a basis for further negotiations, according to a joint statement released after they met in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The proposal, a 28-point plan, calls for Ukrainian concessions already largely rejected by the country’s president and allies. Mr. Trump gave President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine until next week to agree to the plan, though he said Saturday the plan was “not my final offer” and suggested that the deadline could be extended should progress be made in negotiations.
It remained unclear Saturday how much wiggle room Ukraine and its European allies would have to change the proposal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, will head to Geneva on Sunday, where they are expected to meet senior Ukrainian officials to discuss Kyiv’s response to the American proposal, a U.S. official said Saturday.
Even before the latest proposal was made public last week, Ukraine’s allies in Europe and across the globe faced pressure to show they could get Ukraine the economic and military support it needs to continue battling Russia should the United States cease its contributions. Germany, which is already Ukraine’s largest military backer in Europe, this month pledged an additional $3.5 billion in assistance for next year, and France and Sweden recently pledged hundreds of new fighter jets.
Though couched in diplomatic language, public statements from European leaders about the new proposal, including at Saturday’s G20 meeting, made clear that their support for Ukraine was unwavering, whatever the pressure from the White House. In a joint statement adopted Saturday the leaders of 11 nations — including Germany, France, Britain, Japan and Canada — and the European Union said the 28-point plan included “important elements that will be essential for a just and lasting peace.”
But they also made clear that they took issue with provisions of the plan that would strip Ukraine of territory and limit the size of its armed forces.
“What is at stake is Ukrainian sovereignty and European security,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Saturday, adding that European countries would work with the Ukrainians over the next two days to create a plan for the way forward.
“Our problem is not the U.S.,” Mr. Macron told reporters at the G20 summit. “Our unique problem — all of us — is Russia, who started this war, who refused to take the cease-fire proposals.”
How much influence European leaders might have at this point in the war is unclear. Together with Ukraine, they have been cut out of the deliberations that produced this latest proposal. In the past though, Europe’s unified support of Kyiv together with the stubborn refusal of President Vladimir V. Putin to back down from his maximalist demands have been enough to at least preserve the status quo and keep Ukraine in the fight.
Mr. Macron said negotiating teams from the European Union, Germany, Britain and France would meet with American and Ukrainian negotiators in Geneva “to be able to bring substance back to the table and reconcile all these views.” This will be followed by a meeting of the “coalition of the willing,” a group of more than 30 countries supporting Ukraine, he said.
In a video posted to social media on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky expressed a grim view of the proposal before him and expressed doubt that it could be a starting point to negotiate peace.
“Right now, this is about much more than any points in any document,” he said. “We must ensure that nowhere in Europe or the world does the principle prevail that crimes against people and humanity, against states and nations, can ever be rewarded in any way or forgiven.”
Saturday’s meeting took place on the sidelines of the Group of 20 heads of state summit, an annual gathering that brings together leaders of the world’s largest economies to try to agree on shared ambitions on the most pressing global issues. The United States did not send a delegation; Mr. Trump said he was boycotting it because of his belief that South Africa was persecuting its white minority.
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António Costa, president of the European Council, left, and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, right, with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, in Johannesburg on Thursday.Credit…Joao Silva/The New York Times
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