<figure id="attachment_3207844" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3207844" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3207844 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/1d36cf7b-marco-rubio-13112025.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3207844" class="wp-caption-text">The senators said US secretary of state Marco Rubio told them the current Ukraine proposal is not the official US position, but instead lays out a &#8216;Russian wish list&#8217;. (EPA Images pic)</figcaption></figure>
WASHINGTON: Washington insisted yesterday that its Ukraine proposal is indeed official US policy, denying claims by a group of senators that secretary of state Marco Rubio told them the document under discussion is just a Russian &#8220;wish list&#8221;.
The dispute over the 28-point plan &#8211; which cedes Ukrainian territory long sought by Moscow &#8211; threw an extraordinary element of confusion into efforts to negotiate an end to the war.
President Donald Trump has pushed the 28-point plan, pressuring the Ukrainians to accept it within days.
Negotiators will meet in Switzerland today.
However, after a storm of criticism that the proposal is almost entirely favorable to Moscow, several US senators spoke out, holding a press conference at the Halifax Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada, yesterday.
The senators &#8211; Republican Mike Rounds, independent Angus King, and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen &#8211; said Rubio told them the current Ukraine proposal is not the official US position, but instead lays out a &#8220;Russian wish list&#8221;.
&#8220;What he (Rubio) told us was that this was not the American proposal. This was a proposal that was received by someone&#8230;representing Russia in this proposal.
&#8220;It was given to Mr Witkoff,&#8221; Rounds said, referring to Trump&#8217;s diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff.
&#8220;It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan,&#8221; Rounds said.
King corroborated those comments, saying &#8220;the leaked 28-point plan &#8211; which according to secretary Rubio is not the administration&#8217;s position &#8211; it is essentially the wish list of the Russians that is now being presented to the Europeans and to the Ukrainians&#8221;.
State department spokesman Tommy Pigott denied the claims, sharing a post on X citing King&#8217;s comments.
&#8220;This is blatantly false,&#8221; Pigott posted. &#8220;As secretary Rubio and the entire administration has consistently maintained, this plan was authored by the US, with input from both the Russians and Ukrainians&#8221;.
Shaheen said she and Rounds spoke to Rubio on a shared call while the top US diplomat was en route to Geneva for the latest round of negotiations with Ukrainian officials.
Rounds said he and his colleagues had asked for a conversation with Rubio over their concerns with the plan.
In the call, Rubio was &#8220;very frank about it,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t look like normally something that would come out of our government, particularly the way it was written. It looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with,&#8221; Rounds said.
King noted that the plan should not reward Moscow for its invasion.
&#8220;Everyone wants this war to end but we want it to end on a fair and just peace that respects the integrity and the sovereignty of Ukraine and does not reward aggression and also provides adequate security guarantees,&#8221; he said.

MatchPoint Times

US denies pushing Russian ‘wish list’ as Ukraine plan

The dispute over the 28-point plan threw an extraordinary element of confusion into efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

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