By BBC
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted that a proposed 28-point plan to end the Ukraine war, which has been widely viewed as favourable to Russia, was “authored by the US”.
It comes after a group of senators said they had been told by Rubio that the draft – which one said he described as a Russian “wish list” – did not reflect Washington’s position.
Rubio later distanced himself from those claims and said the plan came from the US, and was “based on input” from both Russia and Ukraine.
His intervention came as he flew to Geneva in Switzerland for talks with Ukrainian and European security officials on the plan, which US President Donald Trump has called for Kyiv to agree to swiftly.
Ukraine’s allies in Europe have pushed back on major provisions in the draft, which has not been made public but details of which have been widely leaked.
It includes Ukraine agreeing to withdraw troops from eastern areas which Russia has been unable to take by force, and to limit the size of its armed forces.
On Saturday, Republican Senator Mike Rounds said Rubio had told a group of lawmakers that the draft plan was not US policy.
He told the Halifax Security Forum: “What [Rubio] told us was that this was not the American proposal.”
Rounds said he had been assured that the plan was presented to Steve Witkoff, who acts as Trump’s overseas diplomatic envoy, by “someone… representing Russia”. The senator continued: “It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan.”
Shortly after, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Rounds’s account of his conversation with Rubio was “blatantly false”.
He wrote on X: “As Secretary Rubio and the entire administration has consistently maintained, this plan was authored by the United States, with input from both the Russians and Ukrainians.”
Rubio then posted on social media himself, saying: “The peace proposal was authored by the US. It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
On Saturday, Trump – who has made securing a deal to end the conflict a central foreign policy goal during his second term – said the plan did not represent a “final offer” for Ukraine, having previously said President Volodymyr Zelensky “will have to” approve it.
In a post on X on Saturday, Vice President JD Vance said criticism of the proposed peace plan “either misunderstands the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground”.
“There is a fantasy that if we just give more money, more weapons, or more sanctions, victory is at hand,” he said, adding that peace will not be made by “politicians living in a fantasy land”.
