WASHINGTON – US Congressman Don Bacon, a prominent Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, on Wednesday became the first GOP lawmaker to speak up against President Donald Trump’s proposed Russo-Ukrainian War peace plan, which entails recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea while barring Ukraine from joining NATO among other stipulations that are non-starters for Ukrainians.
“First, I’m very resistant to rewarding Russia for its barbaric invasion by giving it any Ukrainian land. Second, if Ukraine forfeits any land they should then be allowed into NATO to gain much needed security guarantees,” Congressman Bacon told Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent.
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As long as Russia is conducting attacks against Ukraine “we should be keeping maximum sanctions on,” he said.
Bacon went on to add that the Trump Administration “treats Russia and Ukraine as both caused the war.”
“We should have moral clarity that Russia started this war and is solely at fault,” he emphasized.
The revelations on the new Trump plan, which critics believe heavily favors Russia, came amid downgraded London talks, where officials from the US, United Kingdom, Ukraine, France and Germany met to discuss their counterproposals at the technical level without tangible progress.
As Kyiv Post reported earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly cancelled his plan to attend the UK-led talks, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly rejected any proposal that entails giving up Crimea, saying: “There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution.”
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Trump himself on Wednesday lashed out at Zelensky several times, telling reporters that the Ukrainian president was sabotaging his plan with “inflammatory statements” adding that he believed “Russia is ready” to end the war, and that “we have to get a deal with Zelensky.”
He also wrote in a social media post that the statement made by Zelensky “will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field,’ and nobody wants that! We are very close to a Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE.”
Hours later though, Trump expressed a rather optimistic tone telling reporters, “I think we have a deal with both,” and added “I hope they do it.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that Trump’s patience was “running very thin” with Ukraine-Russia negotiations, “and unfortunately, President Zelensky has been trying to litigate this peace… negotiation in the press, and that’s unacceptable to the president.”
“These should be closed-door negotiations,” she insisted.
Both Secretary Rubio and Trump’s Vice President JD Vance also weighed in during the day, threatening to end the negotiations if Ukraine does not accept the US proposal.
Trump was also repeatedly asked questions about whether he would meet Zelensky this weekend when the pair attend Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome, although he said he didn’t know.
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