Trump excluded Europe from peace talks on Ukraine, - NYT
European leaders were surprised by Donald Trump's "peace" plan, as the US began negotiations on Ukraine without the participation of the EU.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by The New York Times.
In particular, it is noted that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had learned about the plan from the news, not from US officials.
"His team had to reach out several times to set up a call on Friday night with President Trump for an explanation," sources familiar with the situation said.
Behind-the-scenes peace plan
According to the publication, the content of the plan caused an "alarming reaction" in Europe.
"Senior European officials had known the Trump administration was working on some kind of plan, but nothing that favored Russia to this extent. When it surfaced, they realized that Europe had been cut out of the Trump administration’s efforts to end the continent’s biggest land war since World War II," the article says.
According to the initial version of the plan, Russia could suffer insignificant losses for its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the amount of territory it would gain would even exceed its actual successes on the front lines.
The document also contained provisions on NATO's official refusal of Ukraine's future membership, which contradicts European intentions to integrate Kyiv into the Alliance.
"Now, the Europeans understand that they must do much more," said former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
European diplomats demanded explanations
European foreign ministers first learned of the plan last Thursday, 20 November, on their way to a meeting in Brussels on the situation in Sudan and Ukraine.
"When everyone had arrived, having read The Financial Times, there were some questions," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen dryly remarked.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also joined the discussion online, but, as noted, his knowledge of the matter was also limited. After that, European diplomats began to insistently demand explanations.
By Friday, 21 November, it became clear that the proposed plan was realistic. During a meeting in Ukraine, US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said that Europe had not been involved in the negotiations in order to avoid "too many cooks". In his opinion, European countries "had grown too close to Ukrainian counterparts to objectively assess the war".
