A senior official in Kiev lamented earlier that day that the peace proposals had been prepared by Russia and approved by the Americans, stressing that what Moscow should do in return was uncertain, AFP reported.
The High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union (EU) rejected any plan that does not have the agreement of Ukraine, as an invaded country, and European participation, reminding Washington that, in this conflict, “there is a clear aggressor and a victim”.
Kaja Kallas said, before the start of a meeting of the 27 foreign ministers in Brussels, that the meeting would focus on “recent news”.
In Washington, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt stated that the peace plan proposed by the United States is good “for both Russia and Ukraine.”
“The President (Donald Trump) supports this plan. It’s a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine, and we think it’s acceptable to both parties,” Leavitt told reporters, in response to reports that the plan would satisfy Moscow on several important points.
Paulo Rangel criticizes Trump’s peace plan for not having previously heard Kiev
Paulo Rangel, Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs (MNE), criticized the proposal presented by the United States to end the war in Ukraine for having been made without first hearing the Kiev authorities.
This proposal “should result from a prior hearing with Ukraine, which was not done. This is an aspect that we, obviously, criticize”, said the head of Portuguese diplomacy.
Noting that he does not know exactly the terms of the proposal, Paulo Rangel said that he had been in “intense exchange of communications with his European Union counterparts” on the issue.
“The idea is that there are, in the plan, some principles that are positive and that Ukraine will be willing to explore, and others that, eventually, are not acceptable to Ukraine” said the minister, who was speaking at the Portugal International Summit, a conference organized as part of the 4th anniversary of the CNN channel.
The head of Portuguese diplomacy also criticized the fact that the proposal does not make a distinction between the aggressor and the attacked country. “Russia is the aggressor and this should be clearly highlighted”, but “apparently, the proposal does not distinguish between the country that attacked and the country that had an aggression-type invasion that particularly violates international law”, he warned.
Even so, Paulo Rangel was optimistic, considering that since the new North American administration took office, at the beginning of this year, some evolution has been observed regarding the conflict that began in February 2022. “We have seen that, in this matter, there has always been some evolution”, he stressed.
Defending that the fact that the proposal from the administration led by President Donald Trump includes new sanctions on Russia is positive, Rangel stressed that it is “a process”.
“What I can say, and I think that even so I am already going a little beyond what I should, is that there are points in the proposal that were well received by Ukraine and there are points in the proposal that were not well received and, therefore, that there is scope to work on relevant points”, he stated, guaranteeing that Portugal and the European Union are fully in solidarity with Ukraine.
“We do not see the war in Ukraine as a problem for Ukraine, but as a problem for Europe, as a problem for NATO, as a problem for the Euro-Atlantic axis, as a problem for the world”, he concluded.