Trump says Ukraine peace plan isn’t his ‘final offer’

President Donald Trump said Saturday that his administration’s peace proposal for Ukraine and Russia was “not my final offer,” telling reporters after a question from NBC News: “One way or another, we have to end it.”

Trump added that if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky does not accept the peace plan, “then he can continue to fight to the end.”

Earlier this week, Trump said he wanted Zelensky — who is on the fence about the proposal — to agree to the peace plan by Thanksgiving.

Key points of the proposal include allowing Russia to keep more Ukrainian territory than it currently has, forcing Ukraine to limit the size of its army, and agreeing that Ukraine will never join NATO.

Ukrainian lawmakers criticized the plan as too yielding to Russia’s demands, although the Trump administration said the plan, which has 28 points, was drafted with input from both sides of the conflict.

“Ukraine could now face a very difficult choice, either lose its dignity, or risk losing a key partner, or the difficult 28 points, or a very difficult winter,” Zelenskyy said in a video about the plan earlier this week.

Several US lawmakers, including those from Trump’s own party, have also expressed concerns about the plan.

“While there are many good ideas in the proposed Russia-Ukraine peace plan, several areas are very problematic and can be improved. The goal of any peace agreement is to end the war honorably and justly — not to create a new conflict,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote in a post on X Saturday morning. Later, the South Carolina senator said he was confident Trump would secure a peace deal by pushing both countries and ensure Ukraine remains free and able to defend itself against future aggression.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., wrote in his own X message Friday that “this so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am very skeptical of its ability to achieve peace.”

He added: “Ukraine should not be forced to cede its land to one of the world’s most egregious war criminals, Vladimir Putin. The size and disposition of Ukraine’s armed forces is a sovereign choice for its government and its people. And assurances provided to Putin should not reward his malicious behavior or compromise the security of the United States or its allies.”

The proposal includes a security guarantee with a commitment that U.S. and European allies in Ukraine would treat any future attack on Ukraine as an attack on the broader transatlantic community, a U.S. official told NBC News, with few additional details on what that commitment would entail.

Ukrainian leaders are not the only ones to express their concerns about this project. On the sidelines of the G20 summit in South Africa, European leaders said the proposal, if accepted, could “make Ukraine vulnerable to future attacks.”

It was a key point in a declaration signed by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Norway.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Geneva on Sunday to meet with a Ukrainian delegation to advance peace negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials.

A separate meeting with a Russian delegation in another location in the coming days is under consideration, according to these officials.

Rubio and Witkoff will join Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who arrived earlier Saturday with the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, Ambassador Julie Davis. Last week, Driscoll traveled to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy.

“Secretary Driscoll and his team have just landed in Geneva to work on the next steps toward bringing peace to Ukraine,” a U.S. official said.

Zelensky confirmed details of the meeting in an article on X, saying he had spoken to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday.

“Tomorrow our advisors will work in Switzerland, representatives of Ukraine, the United States and the E3 format, namely the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The vast majority of European leaders are ready to help and get involved. Consultations are underway at different levels and the efforts of all those seeking true and lasting peace are a question,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Trump has made quickly ending the ongoing war in Ukraine a key promise of his 2024 campaign. So far this year, he has met with Zelensky several times and hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for a summit in Alaska.

Russian leaders, including Putin, welcomed the peace proposal, with Putin saying that if Ukraine did not sign the deal, Russia would end the war “by military means, by armed struggle.”