US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said that European countries had been left out of negotiations to end the war in Ukraine in order to avoid having “too many cooks,” The New York Times reported on Thursday.
A report from the outlet, citing 16 mostly unnamed officials, revealed how Europe was sidelined by the Trump administration as it sought to negotiate a peace deal with Russia behind closed doors.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, for example, was reportedly stunned when he found out about the leaked 28-point US-Russia brokered plan to end the war from a news headline.
Merz and those close to him wondered if US President Donald Trump had really known about the plan and whether it was a serious proposition, two people briefed on their thinking told NYT.
Merz’s team was reportedly forced to reach out several times last Friday to set up a call with US President Donald Trump to ask for an explanation.
“There were some questions”
Many of Europe’s foreign ministers first heard of the plan in the same way, as they were heading into a meeting about Sudan in Brussels.
“When everyone arrived, having read The Financial Times, there were some questions,” Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the Danish foreign minister, told NYT.
European officials were said to be alarmed by the deal, which promised sweeping territorial concessions to Russia as well as a slate of lucrative business deals and entailed a pledge to lock Ukraine out of NATO indefinitely.
It also implied that a French and British proposal to put boots on the ground in postwar Ukraine would be rendered null and void and included plans to unfreeze billions of immobilized dollars of Russian money which Europe has been trying to loan to Ukraine in aid.
Senior European officials are reported to have been aware that the Trump administration was continuing to work on a plan, but they did not suspect that it would be so slanted in favor of Russia.
“Too many cooks”
Trump administration officials began to open up lines of communication with their European counterparts the day after the plan was leaked.
As well as saying that European countries had been cut out of negotiations to avoid having “too many cooks,” Driscoll is said to have told leaders that they had grown too close to their Ukrainian counterparts to appraise the war objectively.
After corresponding closely, Europe elected to flatter the Trump team by describing the plan as a good basis for future talks, before heading to a hastily organized summit to make their case to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Geneva.
Rubio is said to have privately told Europe’s representatives that the issues that directly impacted Europe would no longer be included in current discussions and later portrayed the plans as a “living, breathing document” that they could hope to alter to better fit their needs, to the relief of many.
“Little reason for optimism”
However, questions are said to remain among European leaders about whether the US will now continue to involve them in ongoing discussions.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned journalists on Monday that there was “little reason for any kind of cheerful optimism,” adding “nobody wants to discourage the Americans and President Trump from ensuring that the United States remains on our side.”
Russian officials warned on Wednesday that a deal to end the war in Ukraine was still a way off, as Trump’s roving envoy Steve Witkoff prepared to travel to Moscow next week for further talks.
Moscow has consistently criticized Europe’s role in negotiations, describing its counter-proposal to the original 28-point plan as “entirely unconstructive and unsuitable for us.”
Several outlets have reported that Washington is putting strong pressure on Kyiv to accept the existing draft, adding that the Ukrainian delegation understands it is possible support from the US will be withdrawn if it fails to do so.