By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
INTERNATIONAL
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, assisted by a delegation that included Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner along with Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, said Sunday that progress had been made in negotiations with Ukraine and its European allies on revising President Trump’s 28-point pro-Russian peace plan.
Although specifics were not announced, the White House said that negotiators “drafted an updated and refined peace framework” in their first day of meetings. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said he perceived “signals that President Trump’s team is hearing us.”
Ukrainian and American negotiators will return Monday with European allies to the conference table at the U.S. Embassy in Geneva, Switzerland. Ukraine’s delegation in Geneva is headed by Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, whose father Borys Yermak is Jewish. Diplomats from France, England, and Germany attended Sunday’s session.
Rubio told reporters that negotiators had narrowed “open items.” It was a “very good day,” he told an international press corps.
The upbeat assessment contrasted with European and domestic pushback on Saturday to the 28-point plan, which included demands that Ukraine cede some of its territory to Russia, not join NATO, and scale back its military substantially.
Hours before Rubio’s news conference in Geneva, Trump posted this on Truth Social: “I inherited a war that should have never happened, a war that is a loser for everyone, especially the millions of people that have so needlessly died. Ukraine ‘leadership’ has expressed zero gratitude for our efforts, and Europe continues to buy oil from Russia. The USA continues to sell massive $amounts of weapons to NATO, for distribution to Ukraine (Crooked Joe gave everything free, free, free, including ‘big’ money!) God bless all the lives that have been lost in the human catastrophe! President DJT.”
Responding on social media, Zelenskyy promptly wrote: “Ukraine is grateful to the United States, to every American heart, and personally to President Trump for the assistance that – starting with the Javelins – has been saving Ukrainian lives. We thank everyone in Europe, in the G7, and in the G20 who is helping us defend life. It is important to preserve the support. It is important not to forget the main goal – to stop Russia’s war and prevent it from ever igniting again. The leadership of the United States is important, we are grateful for everything that America and President Trump are doing for security, and we remain as constructive as possible.”
Trump and Zelenskyy would need to agree with the pact before it could be transmitted to President Vladimir Putin who, in turn, would have to approve it before it could go into effect.
In the Sunday morning edition of The San Diego Union, Mike Luckovich’s cartoon showed Putin drawing up a peace plan with a miniature Trump serving as an autopen.
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NATIONAL
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan), one of six members of Congress who made a controversial video instructing members of the military and intelligence communities that they are duty-bound not to carry out any illegal orders from their superiors, told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week she had in mind a hypothetical situation involving federalized National Guard troops.
She said she feared an inexperienced superior officer, faced with angry, unarmed civilians, might give an order to shoot. Asked by Raddatz if President Trump had issued any illegal orders, Slotkin said not to her knowledge.
The President, after viewing the video, angrily described it as “seditious,” which is a death penalty offense. However, he added through a press secretary, he doesn’t want the six Democrats executed, but would like them investigated and put on trial.
On Face the Nation, another of the six Democrats, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, decried Trump’s violent rhetoric. Kelly’s wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) survived an assassination attempt, but had to resign from Congress because her injuries were so extensive. Kelly noted in an interview with host Margaret Brennan that Trump had been the target of other assassination attempts, so he ought to know what violent rhetoric begets.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.