The New York Times reported the information.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz learned about the Trump administration's peace plan for Ukraine not from American officials, but from a news headline last Thursday. His team had to make multiple attempts to arrange a Friday night call with President Trump for clarification, according to officials familiar with the events.The leaked 28-point plan sent shockwaves through European capitals. From a European perspective, the proposal was deeply troubling: it would allow Russia to pay minimal consequences for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, grant Moscow more territory than its army had actually captured, and force NATO to formally reject Ukraine's membership bid—directly contradicting European support for Ukrainian accession to the alliance.While senior European officials knew the Trump administration was developing some kind of peace framework, none anticipated a plan that would so heavily favor Russia. When the details emerged, they realized Europe had been completely excluded from discussions about ending the continent's largest land conflict since World War II.The content was alarming enough, but the manner of discovery was equally stunning. Many European foreign ministers first heard about the Trump plan Thursday morning in Brussels as they headed to a previously scheduled meeting about Sudan and Ukraine."When everyone had arrived, having read The Financial Times, there were some questions," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said with notable understatement.The ministers immediately pressed Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who had joined via teleconference, for additional details. Like his European counterparts, Sybiha had limited information about the proposal.In Germany, Chancellor Merz canceled a scheduled elementary school reading event to manage the crisis. His team questioned whether Trump had personally endorsed the plan and how seriously it should be taken.By Friday, it became clear the plan was genuine. U.S. Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll told officials at a meeting in Ukraine that European countries were excluded from negotiations to avoid having "too many cooks." He suggested European officials had grown too close to their Ukrainian counterparts to objectively assess the war situation.This left Europe facing a difficult choice: reject the proposal outright and risk angering Trump while losing any influence over the process, or engage with the plan and potentially give it unwanted momentum."Ukraine may soon face an extremely difficult choice," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday. "Either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner."Over the weekend, European diplomats worked frantically to coordinate a response. By Saturday's G20 summit in South Africa, European leaders had reached a pragmatic, if uncomfortable, conclusion: to regain influence, they needed to engage with Trump's team while presenting a unified front.European Council President António Costa organized the response, working with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after both had spoken with Zelenskyy. They understood that if Ukraine was engaging with Trump's team, Europe needed its own strategy.Rather than opposing Trump directly, European leaders chose a diplomatic approach. Despite serious reservations about the plan, they released a statement suggesting it could serve as a starting point: "We welcome the continued U.S. efforts to bring peace to Ukraine. We believe therefore that the draft is a basis which will require additional work."Top EU diplomats Bjoern Seibert and Pedro Lourtie rushed from Johannesburg to Geneva within thirty minutes of the statement's release, joining envoys from Britain, France, Germany, and Italy for hastily arranged talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.The European diplomatic offensive achieved a breakthrough. After meeting with European and Ukrainian officials Sunday, Rubio privately assured Europeans that issues directly affecting European nations would be handled separately from current discussions.By Sunday evening, Rubio's public tone had shifted significantly. He described the talks as constructive and the plan as flexible. "This is a living, breathing document," he said, indicating Europe would have input on matters concerning European nations through a "separate track."The news brought relief to Brussels, though major challenges remain. German Foreign Minister Stefan Wadephul described the talks as a European victory by Monday morning.However, the united European front faces ongoing tests. Divisions persist over Ukraine funding for 2026, questions linger about continued U.S. consultation with Europe, and despite cease-fire momentum, a final deal remains uncertain as Russia signals resistance to the plan."There is little reason for any kind of cheerful optimism," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told journalists Monday. "The matter is delicate, because nobody wants to discourage the Americans and President Trump from ensuring that the United States remains on our side."Former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen captured Europe's predicament: initially sidelined by Trump, Europe's "coalition of the willing" had become a "coalition of the waiting." Now, he said, "the Europeans understand that they must do much more."On November 23, in Geneva, Switzerland, the Ukrainian and American delegations discussed the 28 points of the so-called Witkoff-Dmitriev peace plan, drawn up with the participation of the Kremlin.At the same time, Europe proposed its own 28 points for a plan to end Russia's war with Ukraine: the full text of the proposal has been published.On November 24, the spokesman for the Russian dictator, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Russian Federation had not received any information about the negotiations between Ukraine, Europe, and the U.S. in Geneva, and was also unaware of the new text for a war settlement based on the results of the meetings.Later, Trump expressed doubt about the possibility of achieving "great progress" in the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations.On November 24, the President's Office stated that the 28-point plan, in the form that everyone had seen, no longer exists.The next day, the head of the President's Office, Andriy Yermak, announced that Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to hold talks with President Trump "as soon as possible" to finalize the peace agreement. The meeting could take place on Thanksgiving, November 27.