Donald Trump responds to Ukraine peace plan criticism: ‘not my final offer’

US President Donald Trump sparked fury among Ukrainians after he gave President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a deadline of one week to accept the 28-point proposal on Thursday.

However, on Saturday, Trump told reporters during brief remarks at the White House that the “peace plan” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine was still open for negotiations.

The plan had been considered to favour Moscow, with Ukrainians describing it as reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler.

“No, not my final offer,” Trump told the reporters. “We’d like to get to peace. It should’ve happened a long time ago.”

He continued, “The Ukraine war with Russia should have never happened. If I were president, it never would have happened. We’re trying to get it ended. One way or the other we have to get it ended.”

The comments came as the Ukrainian and American officials are gathering for diplomatic talks in Switzerland on Sunday. Security officials from France, Britain and Germany are also expected to join them in Geneva.

After Trump had announced the 28-point plan, on Friday Zelenskyy had said that Ukraine “may now face a very difficult choice: either the loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner, or 28 difficult points, or an extremely harsh winter”.

A number of European leaders have spoken out in support of Ukraine since the details of Trump’s proposal were released.