Name: Germany's Merz: US 'peace plan' needs Ukraine agreement | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-11-22T16:55:23.000Z
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Basic passive voice

Western leaders say that further work is needed on the U.S.

russia negotiated proposal to end the war in Ukraine.

president Donald Trump announced he's giving Ukraine until next Thursday to accept a 28 point proposal that largely favors Russia.

The White House has reportedly threatened to withdraw American support for Ukraine if the deadline is not met.

Kyiv will hold consultations in Switzerland with the US And Germany, Britain and France.

The news of the US Russian peace plan is overshadowing the G20 leaders summit which is getting underway in South Africa.

The first G20 gathering in Africa was meant to discuss helping poor nations.

But the U.S. proposal on Ukraine blindsided EU leaders in attendance.

They've been scrambling to respond and hold emergency talks on the sidelines of the summit.

Gathered here earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Metz had this to say.

I want to make it very clear that the war can only end if Ukraine gives its unqualified agreement.

Wars can't be ended by the big powers acting over the heads of the countries involved.

The war can only end with the consent of Ukraine and of Europe as it's a war being fought on the continent of European continent.

DW chief political editor Michaela Kufner is in Johannesburg traveling with German Chancellor Meltz and is at the G20 summit, I believe.

Michael, what else did the German Chancellor have to say?

Well, first of all, that's sentence that we just heard.

I was standing just a few meters next to him when he was saying that.

I was wondering whether that will actually age.

Well, he has made some diplomatic success because he was the European leader who got Donald Trump on the phone just before he stepped on that plane on Friday evening.

And he did get Donald Trump to agree to actually negotiate these 28 points, which his Trump's adviser Witkoff says is a plan Marco Rubio called more of a collection of ideas.

And that's where the Europeans saw a bit of room for manoeuvre.

And it looks like Donald Trump has granted that he is sending advisers, it's not quite clear whom to Geneva.

The German chancellor sent back his top foreign policy adviser and European advisers will be at the table as well.

they had a side meeting here this afternoon in Johannesburg when really they were supposed to talk about sustainability and growing debt in Africa and other areas of the world.

They had this emergency meeting looking at the 28 point plan.

They've communicated back to Donald Trump where they want to see changes.

And the key issue is of course how this all came about.

That is over the head of Ukraine and also over the head of, of the Europeans who had absolutely no say in this document initially being drafted.

So now we're seeing the Europeans try and push this in a different direction, and

it's still very open indeed whether they will succeed and whether this will actually produce a document that will be signed in some shape or form this coming Thursday.

Michelle, can you tell us more about what Europe would hope to get out of this current plan?

Well, they literally need to get some passages canceled out of that.

And the Europeans simply cannot live with the fact that Ukraine now is supposed to surrender territory, large parts of territory, that there are limitations on NATO membership they can potentially live with.

But that the United States position themselves in one of those paragraphs saying that they will be a go between, between NATO and Russia that points to a further withdrawal of the United States.

That would mean that Europe is home alone.

If the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, doesn't stick to any kind of security guarantees, there's a, this is not a historic first.

Ukraine surrendered its new nuclear weapons initially in exchange for security guarantees which were then broken by Russia.

An expectation on the side of the Europeans is that the United States would also offer a completely different level of security guarantees in there.

It's a conscious decision not to leak this, not to let anything seep out, because there's a strong feeling that there's an urgent need for some room for maneuver for those Geneva talks and for the days and hours ahead.

Chief Political Editor Michelle Kufner in Johannesburg.

He is an adjunct senior fellow at the think tank.

So based on what we know of the 28 point US peace plan, how would you characterize Washington's objectives here?

It seems that the US Negotiators have accepted Russia's position on virtually every point.

Even the Kremlin has been circumspect today in how it characterizes the plan.

For example, the Kremlin spokesman, Peskov said, well, there have not been consultations, only contacts.

This may suggest that the Kremlin realizes this plan is a non starter.

It has no hope whatsoever of being successful.

Are the primary motives here then or Washington's primary motives here?

Certainly President Trump wants to bring an end to the fighting and that's, that's a noble, a noble goal.

But in both cases, The Russians with Kirill Dmitriev and the White House with Steve Witkoff are negotiators who do not have much background with regard to the Ukraine situation.

So this seems to be a plan that was prepared, perhaps hastily, without expert advice.

And so from the Washington perspective, perhaps the White House was shocked that President Zelensky and three European leaders today issued a statement.

It's clear that Ukraine enjoys the confidence of Europeans and vice versa.

That's no longer the case between the US And Ukraine.

All right, well, then how likely is a reduction then, in US Support possible?

And how fast could that become operationally dangerous for Ukraine?

Well, it's important to remember that now only Europe is providing financial aid and military aid to Ukraine.

The United States is providing some intelligence for situational awareness and targeting, which is quite valuable for Russia, for Ukraine in attacking distant targets in Russia.

But otherwise, the United States is only selling arms to Europe, which would then retransfer them to Ukraine.

So Europe has by far the most leverage in this situation.

While it's possible that President Trump could cut off intelligence cooperation, Ukraine enjoys very strong bipartisan support in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives.

So I think it's fairly unlikely that the US Would end up cutting off intelligence.

All right, well, let's bring in Russia into this conversation.

So do you see Russia viewing the US Plan as an incentive to compromise or an opportunity to push for even more concessions?

Well, right now, because of the circumspect reaction of the Kremlin, the Kremlin may realize that this plan just is not going to work.

And it was negotiated by an amateur Russian negotiator, Kirill Dmitriev.

So I imagine the Kremlin is now probably trying to figure out an alternative strategy to come up with a more credible negotiating position, because the Ukrainians and the Europeans, they have the leverage, and

Remember, from the Russia standpoint, this has been a stalemate on the battlefield now for a couple of years in Eastern Ukraine.

European leaders are in agreement that they don't want a deal forged over Ukraine's head, and

they also want to be part of the conversations and the negotiations of any deal.

And what's your take on Europe's position there?

I believe Europe is on the right track because, again, it is providing the very substantial financial military aid to Ukraine and also Ukrainians.

I'm sorry, Europeans more and more, of course, realize that Russia's aggression in Ukraine is a direct threat to European security.

Europeans didn't maybe realize this quite as much at the very beginning, but they sure do now.

Europe increasingly is acting as a geopolitical actor and probably going to use that leverage in order to insist that Ukraine be fully supported.

But really great to get your analysis, William.

William Courtney, former U.S. ambassador and adjunct senior fellow, the Think Tank Rant.