Camilla Jessen
Two days after the Trump-backed Ukraine peace framework became public, members of Congress across both parties delivered some of their sharpest criticism yet.
A series of senior lawmakers sounded alarms over the peace document drafted by Trump’s envoy Steve Whitcoff and Russian official Kirill Dmitriev, according to Reuters, Bloomberg and U.S. network interviews.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the top member of the Intelligence Committee, told Fox News Sunday that the proposal amounted to “the total surrender of Ukraine,” arguing that its terms could embolden other authoritarian leaders.
He cautioned that Chinese President Xi Jinping could see it as a signal to move on Taiwan.
“This will go down in history as a bad deal,” Warner said, drawing a parallel to the 1938 Munich Agreement, when British and French leaders ceded the Sudetenland to Hitler only for war to erupt months later.
Republican backlash
The criticism cut across party lines. Senate Republicans Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Roger Wicker urged the White House to pull back, warning that the plan risked strategic disaster.
McConnell accused the Kremlin of trying “to make President Trump look like a fool,” adding that rewarding Russian aggression would harm U.S. interests.
Wicker rejected any clause limiting Ukraine’s troop numbers, saying those decisions “are a sovereign choice.”
Graham wrote on X that several proposals “must be improved,” adding that a just peace must not create the conditions for a future conflict.
Capitol Hill prepares countermeasures
According to Politico, a bipartisan group in the House plans to push a vote on new “crushing sanctions” against Russia immediately after Thanksgiving.
Trump had earlier pressed President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept the plan by the holiday, before later downplaying the deadline.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led U.S. delegates in Switzerland this weekend alongside Ukrainian and European envoys, expressed optimism that negotiations could move quickly, saying the administration hoped for progress “as soon as possible.”
Inside the Miami meeting
Bloomberg reported that the plan was assembled when Dmitriev traveled to Miami in October, meeting Whitcoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Rubio was briefed only at the last moment, while Trump approved the framework after receiving a short summary.
Analysts in Europe condemned the proposal as a de facto division of Ukraine.
Bloomberg columnist Mark Champion compared it to a “modern Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact,” arguing that Russia would gain territory while U.S. firms positioned themselves for reconstruction profits from frozen Russian assets.
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly echoed the backlash on CBS: “This is Putin’s plan. It’s a very good deal for Russia, but terrible for Ukraine, our allies and even our own national security.”
Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg, Fox News Sunday, Politico, CBS, Digi24
