Ukraine has until Thanksgiving – Thursday, November 27 – to accept the new US “peace plan.” The deadline is arbitrary, a sign of growing impatience inside the White House. And the threat is clear. The proposal is entirely one-sided in favor of Russia. The latest attempt at US mediation, laid out in a hastily drafted 28-point plan and another document offering NATO-style security guarantees to Kyiv, was developed behind the backs of European leaders. Since its leak to the press midweek, the E3 countries (the United Kingdom, Germany and France) have entered crisis management mode. They are meeting on Saturday, November 22, and Sunday, November 23, in South Africa for a G20 summit that the United States is not attending.

The plan calls for extremely painful, even unacceptable, concessions from Ukraine, beginning with the relinquishment of additional territory that bears no justification given the current military situation. Ukrainian forces would have to withdraw from areas they still control in the Donetsk region, leaving a demilitarized buffer zone that would, in effect, fall under Russian control. The regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia would be divided along the current lines of conflict. A general amnesty would be considered for both sides, preventing Ukrainian civilians who have been victims of rape, torture or abduction from seeking justice.

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