President Donald Trump signaled Monday that “something good” may be emerging from the Ukraine peace talks underway in Switzerland, while cautioning “don’t believe it until you see it.”
Trump’s comments on Truth Social came just hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised the “tremendous progress” negotiators made Sunday.
“Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening,” Trump wrote in the post.
Washington and Kyiv said in a joint statement that they had produced a “refined peace framework” after the first day of talks in Geneva on Sunday.
Rubio said “it was probably the most productive day we have had” in hammering out unresolved issues on Trump’s peace proposal.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials are reviewing Trump’s proposed 28-point framework aimed at ending the war. Kyiv says it won’t accept concessions that weaken its sovereignty, while Russia’s direct role in the negotiations remains unclear. The discussions mark the most serious diplomatic movement in months.
Trump has set a Thursday deadline for Ukraine to respond to the plan, but he has also suggested that could slide if there is proof of real progress and has emphasized that the plan is not his final offer.
“I feel very optimistic that we can get something done here because we made a tremendous amount of progress today,” Rubio said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could travel to the United States as early as this week to review the most sensitive elements of the peace plan with Trump, Reuters reported Monday.
The original 28-point proposal presented by the United States last week urged Ukraine to surrender additional territory, restrict its military capabilities, and drop its bid to join NATO — key Russian demands Ukraine has consistently rejected.
Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Roger Wicker criticized the proposal on Friday, with the former majority leader warning it represented yet another attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to “play the president for a fool.”
“If Administration officials are more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, then the President ought to find new advisors,” McConnell, R-Ky., wrote.
Wicker, R-Miss., chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was highly skeptical of the plan.
“This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am highly skeptical it will achieve peace. Ukraine should not be forced to give up its lands to one of the world’s most flagrant war criminals in Vladimir Putin,” Wicker said in his statement.
