Ukraine and the US will soon meet in Switzerland to discuss Washington’s plan for ending the war with Russia, which currently heeds to some of Russia’s hardline demands, Kyiv said Saturday. US President Donald Trump gave Ukraine less than a week to approve the 28-point plan to end the nearly four-year conflict, which would see the invaded country ceding territory, cutting its army, and pledging to never join NATO. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s European allies, who were not included in drafting the agreement, were scrambling at the G20 summit in South Africa to come up with a counter-offer to Trump’s plan to beef up Kyiv’s positions. “In the coming days in Switzerland we are launching consultations between senior officials of Ukraine and the United States on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement,” Rustem Umerov, who is on Ukraine’s negotiating team, wrote on social media. “This is another stage of the dialogue that has been ongoing in recent days and is primarily aimed at aligning our vision for the next steps,” added Umerov, a former defence minister, who is now the Secretary of the Security Council. He previously led a few rounds of negotiations with Russia in Turkey, which yielded no breakthrough. This time, Zelensky appointed his top aide, Andriy Yermak, to lead the team, according to a presidential decree. The decree said the talks will also include “representatives of the Russian Federation.” There was no immediate confirmation from Russia whether it would join the talks. – Just peace -In a joint declaration, the G20 leaders called for a “just, comprehensive, and lasting peace,” but not only in Ukraine, but also in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”France’s Emmanuel Macron sent a somber message to the gathering, saying “the G20 may be coming to the end of a cycle,” adding that the grouping was struggling to resolve major crises around the world. He referred specifically to a new unilateral US plan to end the war in Ukraine that accepts some of Russia’s hardline demands. Shortly before that, Macron met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines the summit, boycotted by the US, to discuss a joint response to Washington’s plan.Starmer had earlier said the aim was to “look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”. – Difficult choice -Ukraine faces one of the most challenging moments in its history, Zelensky said in an address to the nation, adding that he would propose alternatives to Trump’s proposal.”The pressure on Ukraine is one of the hardest. Ukraine may face a very difficult choice: either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner,” Zelensky said in his address, referring to a possible break with Washington.To end the war, the US plan envisages recognising territories controlled by Moscow as “de facto” Russian, with Kyiv pulling troops out of parts of the Donetsk region. Ukraine would also cap its army at 600,000, rule out joining NATO and have no troops from the alliance deployed to its territory.In return, Ukraine would get unspecified “reliable security guarantees” and a fund for reconstruction using some Russia assets frozen in foreign accounts.While Russia would gain territory, be reintegrated into the global economy and rejoin the G8, according to a draft of the plan. Putin said the blueprint could “lay the foundation” for a final peace settlement, but threatened more land seizures if Ukraine walked away from negotiations.Better equipped and larger in numbers, the Russian army is slowly but steadily gaining ground across the lengthy front line.Ukrainians were meanwhile facing one of the toughest winters since the war began, after Moscow carried out a brutal bombing campaign against energy infrastructure. This comes as a sweeping corruption probe that unveiled graft in the energy sector was unravelling in Kyiv, sparking public outcry.    

US lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, an influential right-wing figure and MAGA acolyte who recently broke with President Donald Trump, announced she is quitting her seat in Congress, prompting him to double down on Saturday on accusations she is a “traitor.”In a video posted online, the 51-year-old Republican congresswoman from Georgia, who was elected in 2020, said on Friday she had “always been despised in Washington DC and never fit in.”Greene said she did not want her supporters and family to endure “a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms.””I will be resigning from office with my last day being January 5, 2026,” she said.Trump responded on his Truth Social platform by referring to the lawmaker as Marjorie “Traitor” Brown, a label she had singled out as unacceptable in an explanation of her decision to step away. “For some reason, primarily that I refused to return her never ending barrage of phone calls, Marjorie went BAD,” he said in the post early on Saturday morning.The shock move by Greene was the clearest sign yet of a growing split in MAGA world, still churning over strong Democratic victories in this month’s off-year elections, including the win for leftist New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — who had a chummy meeting with Trump Friday. The movement has been particularly riven over Trump’s flip-flop on releasing emails related to the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, a wealthy financier, moved in elite circles for years, cultivating close ties with business tycoons, politicians, academics and celebrities to whom he was accused of trafficking girls and young women for sex. The Epstein affair appeared to have forced the break between Trump and Greene — something she referenced in her resignation speech.”Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for,” Greene said.Trump ended his Truth Social post by saying: “Nevertheless, I will always appreciate Marjorie, and thank her for her service to our Country!”- ‘A two-way street’ -Just this week, Congress passed and the president signed a law requiring government records on the millionaire sex predator to be made public, after months of Trump trying to keep a lid on the material.But before his about-face on the issue, the president announced he was withdrawing all support for “‘Wacky’ Marjorie,” a vocal proponent of the release of the so-called Epstein files.He followed up the following morning with multiple posts on his Truth Social platform attacking Greene as a “lightweight” and even a “traitor” to the Republican Party.The former key political ally to Trump subsequently said she was being targeted by a wave of threats.Greene had previously been a standard-bearer of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, a proponent of immigrant deportation, champion of gun rights and a vaccine skeptic. The high-profile rupture came after Greene distanced herself from the president, who has faced growing criticism over US cost of living concerns and the Epstein scandal.Trump himself had campaigned on releasing the Epstein files, delighting a political base fervent about throwing a spotlight on the scandal and convinced that doing so would expose many powerful figures.Greene’s sudden shift away from Trump prompted speculation that she is lining up for her own presidential bid in 2028, although she dismissed it as “baseless gossip.”Her resignation comes halfway through her third term in the US House of Representatives. In her resignation speech, she did not say what she will do next.“Her split with Trump made her an even bigger national sensation,” observed the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia’s biggest newspaper, in its coverage of her resignation.Greene said she “fought harder than almost any other elected Republican to elect Donald Trump and Republicans,” spending “millions” of her own money along the way — comparing herself with “establishment Republicans who secretly hate him and who stabbed him in the back.””My voting record has been solidly with my party and the president,” Greene said. “Loyalty should be a two-way street.”