U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker says he sees serious issues with President Trump’s proposed peace plan between Ukraine and Russia, which would require Ukraine to surrender large portions of its territory.
“This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am highly skeptical it will achieve peace. Ukraine should not be forced to give up its lands to one of the world’s most flagrant war criminals in Vladimir Putin,” the Republican senator from Mississippi posted on X on Nov. 21. “The size and disposition of Ukraine’s armed forces is a sovereign choice for its government and people. And any assurances provided to Putin should not reward his malign behavior or undermine the security of the United States or allies.”
Wicker is the chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, which provides legislative oversight of the U.S. military and sponsors the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill that includes provisions that control appropriations to Ukraine.
The Mississippi Free Press reached out to Wicker’s office to ask the senator whether he is pressuring the administration to make any changes to the peace plan, but did not receive a response by press time.
Wicker has long been an ardent defender of Trump, opposing his first impeachment in 2020 on allegations that he attempted to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into helping him launch a scam investigation into Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election. Wicker also opposed Trump’s 2021 impeachment on charges he incited an insurrection when hundreds of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election based on Trump’s lies about a stolen election.
But cracks have appeared between Wicker and Trump this year, with Wicker calling Russian President Vladimir Putin “a war criminal who should be in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed” earlier this year when the Trump administration appeared to be souring on Ukraine while warming to Russia.
Trump: ‘We Have Got to Get It Ended’
The original peace plan was a 28-point proposal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, but it contained several terms favorable to Russia. Ukraine would have to surrender large parts of its land to Russia, limit its military size and it would also be banned from ever joining NATO under the plan. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a defense alliance between 32 countries in North America and Europe.
Ukraine would have had to turn over Crimea, Donbas, Luhansk and parts of Kherson and Zaporizhia to Russia under the original peace plan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the U.S. proposal could be a starting point for resolving the conflict that began in 2014 when Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea region and escalated in 2022 when Russia further launched a large-scale ground war in the Eastern European nation. Putin is threatening to send Russian troops further into Ukraine if the country rejects the plan.
The proposal does not meet some of Russia’s key demands, and Russian leaders said they were going to “rework” some of it, Russian foreign aid policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow on Monday. He said much of the plan was acceptable, but some other provision would “require the most detailed discussions and review between the parties”.
“We were given some sort of draft … which will require further reworking,” Ushakov said on Nov. 24.
Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, and the U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, wrote the plan. Dmitriev is the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is a $10 billion sovereign wealth fund that the Russian government created to boost the country’s economy.
“Every nation and every state must be respected, and the core principles that kept Europe peaceful longer than at any other time in its history must be protected,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Monday video address to the Crimea Platform international summit. “These principles are clear: respect for human life, no changing borders by force, and no spheres of influence—a polite term used to cover the desire to dominate other nations and wage wars of aggression.”
Trump said the U.S.’s peace plan for Ukraine and Russia was not the “final offer.”
“I would like to get to peace. It should have happened a long time ago. The Ukraine war with Russia should have never happened,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Nov. 22. “One way or the other, we have to get it ended.”
If Zelenskyy does not accept the peace plan, Trump said, “then he can continue to fight his little heart out.”
Negotiations in Switzerland on Nov. 23 between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Zelenskyy led to an amended peace plan with 19 points. Ukraine’s European allies wrote the plan, which would stop Ukraine’s fighting on the front lines of defense, set aside territory negotiations for later and include assurances that the U.S. would provide security to Ukraine.
“As of now, after Geneva, there are fewer points, no longer 28, and many correct elements have been incorporated into this framework,” Zelenskyy said about the reworked peace plan on Monday.
The Ukrainian president previously said that the original plan was unacceptable and meant that “Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice, either losing its dignity or the risk of losing a key partner, either the difficult 28 points, or a very difficult winter.”
Representing Russia, Ushakov told reporters that much of the U.S. plan was agreeable, but rejected the European version of the plan.
“The European plan, at first glance … is completely unconstructive and does not work for us,” he told reporters.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Europe and Russia both need equal involvement in developing the plan. An agreement to a peace plan likely will not happen this week, as the negotiations would be a “long-lasting process,” the chancellor said.
Chairmen from parliamentary foreign affairs committees in 20 European countries called for peace in Ukraine without the nation having to “yield” to the “aggressor.” They encouraged European leaders and the European Council to meet urgently to support Ukraine by taking a “united, principled stand.”
“Genuine negotiations cannot begin with Ukraine being asked to pre-emptively accept Russian demands. The era of empires is over, and Europe will never accept as legitimate any notion of Russian ‘security interests’ that extend beyond its borders or presume the right to shape Europe’s security order,” the parliamentarians said in a Monday statement, signed by representatives from France, Poland, the UK, Ireland, Spain and other European countries.
A coalition of countries that support Ukraine was meeting on Tuesday to discuss the peace plan further.
Trump Plan Draws Criticisms From Other High-Level Republicans
Sen. Roger Wicker is not the only Republican who broke ranks with the Trump administration on the initial plan.
Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky who remains a senator, criticized the U.S. version of the peace plan in a Nov. 21 post on X, saying the Trump administration appears to be trying to gain a favorable outlook from Putin instead of trying to secure “real peace.”
“Putin has spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool,” he said. “If administration officials are more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, then the President ought to find new advisors. Rewarding Russian butchery would be disastrous to America’s interests.
Congress should have involvement in the peace plan negotiations and review process, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said on X on Nov. 23.
“Congress should also have the ability to review a plan that includes any future security guarantees—just like we have the ability to review any Iran nuclear agreement,” he said. “A lasting peace in Ukraine must ensure Russia cannot launch another invasion in the future. Congressional review will allow us to achieve that goal.”