Trump's 'final offer' Washington wants Ukraine to sign a minerals deal, give up NATO membership, and accept Russian occupation

Last week, during a meeting in Paris with Ukrainian and European officials, a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio put forward its proposal for ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. Now, Axios has reported the details of the plan, citing sources with direct knowledge of it. Meduza explains what it would entail.

The Trump administration's proposed framework for a peace deal in Ukraine is laid out in a one-page document explicitly stating that it’s Washington’s “final offer.” After he presented the plan to Ukrainian and European delegations in Paris last week, Marco Rubio said that if the plan is rejected, the U.S. will walk away from its role as mediator between Russia and Ukraine. According to Axios, the deadline for the parties to respond is Wednesday, April 23.

The plan’s main points are as follows:

• The U.S. would formally recognize Crimea as part of Russia.
• All territories occupied by Russian forces since February 2022 — except for the small occupied part of the Kharkiv region — would remain under Russian control, but without international recognition of their annexation. This includes most of the Luhansk region and parts of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.
• Ukraine would pledge not to join NATO; its potential membership in the E.U. would remain undecided.
• All sanctions imposed on Russia since the start of the war in 2014 would be lifted.
• The U.S. and Russia would strengthen their economic ties, especially in the energy and industrial sectors.
• A group of European countries would guarantee Ukraine’s security; U.S. security guarantees are not mentioned.
• Ukraine would receive assistance for postwar reconstruction, though the source of the funding is not specified.
• The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant would remain under Ukrainian ownership but be managed by the U.S., supplying electricity to both Ukraine and Russia.
• Ukraine would be required to sign an agreement with the U.S. on mineral resources.

According to the Financial Times, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed freezing the fighting along the current front line during an early April meeting in St. Petersburg with U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff. This marked a step back from Putin’s earlier demands, which called for Russia's full control of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions — including areas still held by Ukraine.

Rubio discussed this same proposal with Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov in a phone call immediately after the Paris meeting.

New talks involving the U.S., Ukraine, and E.U. countries were scheduled to take place on April 23 in London, though the Ukrainian delegation reportedly planned to discuss a temporary ceasefire rather than a new peace deal. Rubio pulled out of the meeting on Tuesday, and the talks were ultimately postponed — even after Ukraine’s defense and foreign ministers had already arrived in the British capital.

The U.S. expects that the minerals agreement with Ukraine will be signed on Thursday, April 24, and that Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia later in the week for another meeting with Putin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated that he considers Trump’s “final offer” unacceptable. He said that Ukraine rejects any recognition of Russia's annexation of Crimea and that the U.S. cannot operate the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant without Ukraine.