11 24 25 ABC White House Correspondent Karen Travers on Trump's Ukraine peace plan

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gina Gondek on Colorado's Morning News Progress and a peace
deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I think today was worthwhile.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
It was very, very pretty. It is probably the most
productive day we have had on this issue, maybe in
the entirety of our engagement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
discussing yesterday's US Ukraine talks in Geneva. Joining us on
the Kia Common Spirit Health hotline is ABC News White
House Correspondent Karen Travers.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Karen, appreciate your time. As always, before we.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Talk a little bit about the progress that we've seen,
I think we need to just paint a picture first
of the pushback of the peace deal, to begin with
what were some of the biggest sticking points and maybe
continue to be some of those sticking points with Ukrainian
presidents Lensky.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Well, I mean we should look and Zelinsky is a
very careful negotiator, of course, and his comments publicly are
always very cautious and always looking to get to the
final outcome, saying that his country is looking to have peace,
but that they are the country that was invaded, so
they don't want to be on them at this point.

(01:01):
For the concessions is something that Selensky has bristled at,
especially when it comes to land territory concessions. What we
had been told were some of the details of the
original proposal were cuts to the Ukrainian army, Russia being
able to keep the territory it's occupied in the war,
and those are big, big problems for Ukraine. It was
also notable to see pushback from Republican lawmakers too over

(01:24):
the weekend, who were raising concerns about this plan as well,
and also saying that Ukraine shouldn't agree to anything unless
there were significant security guarantees in this so there were
very quickly scheduled meetings over the weekend between US, European
and Ukrainian officials in Switzerland. Secretary of State was leading
that and said that there were changes and adjustments made

(01:46):
to try to narrow the differences and get to an
outcome that both Ukraine and the US can be comfortable with.
Rubio is expressing significant optimism about where things stand right now,
but they're very much keeping their cards close and not
really viewing where the process is at this point. Notably,
the Russians this morning said that they haven't been given

(02:06):
the update on the Geneva talks. They haven't been given
the final plan or the plan as it stands at
this point. And the President again on social media, was
indicating that he thinks there's progress too, saying that is
it possible that big progress is being made in peace
talks between Russia and Ukraine. He says, don't believe it
until you see it, but something good just may be happening.

(02:29):
Karen also is quickly note that Russia and Ukraine weren't
doing the peace talks this weekend. It was the US
and Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Right, Karen, I'm curious if we have a deadline to
decide on this plan or any specifics of when we
could know these strafted and updated, refined piece framework that
Rubio explained, if we will see those details coming up.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I think we will. You know, of course, are pushing
for this, just what we can report out on this.
But the President has set many deadlines in this conflict
to get to a peace settlement. He has set many
two weeks time frames for Putin to agree to something,
only for those deadlines to come and go. Now this
latest one is for Ukraine to agree to something by Thanksgiving.

(03:09):
The Secretary of State had said over the weekend that
the deadline now is as soon as possible, and that
the process could extend past that Thanksgiving deadline set by
the President. And I think that is probably not surprising,
given how complicated this is.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Can we expect another Zelensky White House meeting?

Speaker 3 (03:26):
You know, we've asked that question. The White House won't say.
It's Monday. The President is expected to travel to Florida
for the Thanksgiving holiday. We'll see if something can come
together quickly. I will not be surprised if its phone calls, though,
of course, with the key leaders in the coming.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Days, well continue following the latest ABC News White House correspondent.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's Karen Travers. Karen, thanks for your time this morning.