Secretary of State Marco Rubio was not "fully looped in until late” on a “controversial 28-point plan dropped suddenly by the Trump administration to Ukraine,” Bloomberg reports.
According to the report, the “take-it-or-leave it proposition … was mostly the result of several weeks of negotiations behind the scenes between Steve Witkoff and his Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev that excluded not only Ukraine and its allies but even some key US officials.”
Bloomberg spoke with “several people familiar with the deliberations who spoke on condition of anonymity” to “reconstruct” the plan's origination. The framework has since been delivered as an “ultimatum” to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Per Bloomberg, Vice President JD Vance’s “close friend” US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, triggered the “alarm” for European officials after he “told their ambassadors and Ukraine officials in an urgent tone that U.S. President Donald Trump had run out of patience.”
“Before European leaders and Zelenskiy jumped into action, they needed to try and understand who was most responsible for the framework,” Bloomberg reports. “They had been entirely shut out and it wasn’t clear who had the most influence with Trump on the issue.”
As it turns out, “Witkoff and Dmitriev forged the plan during an October meeting in Miami that included Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law,” according to Bloomberg.
“Rubio hadn’t been fully looped in until late,” Bloomberg reports. “Trump also found out about it at the last minute, but he blessed it once he was briefed.”
Despite this, the U.S. State Department on Saturday pushed back on claims from U.S. senators that the plan originated with Russia.
After a phone call with the secretary of state, Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said Saturday the framework was “not our peace plan.”
Sen. Angus King (I-ME), who also sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters the plan is "essentially the wish list of the Russians.”
State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott, in response, called King’s comment “blatantly false,” and Rubio has since insisted "the peace proposal was authored by the U.S.”
Still, no one has walked back Rounds’ assertion that Rubio told him and fellow senators the peace plan “is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, on Saturday lashed out the administration’s shifting position on the deal.
"Some people better get fired on Monday for the gross buffoonery we just witnessed over the last four days," he wrote on X.