Biden Offered Russia Twenty Percent of Ukrainian Territory in Exchange for Peace

White House peace offer was transmitted by CIA Director William Burns to Russia and Ukraine in mid-January but both nations reportedly rejected it.

U.S. President Joe Biden meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Geneva Summit in June 2021

In what appears to be the biggest attempted Ukraine war policy pivot for the White House in the past ten months, Newsweek magazine reported earlier today that the Biden administration offered Russia twenty percent of Ukraine in mid-January, in exchange for an end to the war, but regrettably both Russia and Ukraine rejected it. The article implies that the White House was willing to at least provide some kind of de facto recognition of Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts last September in exchange for an end to this senseless, unnecessary and easily avoidable conflict. A CIA official has since confirmed that CIA Director William Burns did, in fact, transmit a peace offer to Moscow last month on behalf of the White House but would not confirm the details of the offer. The original report of this peace offer came from Swiss-German newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) which cited German leaders who told them that Biden had offered the Ukrainian territory as part of a peace plan in an effort to avert a protracted war in Ukraine which, as Biden himself has warned, has increased the threat of nuclear war to its highest level since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

According to the Newsweek article, the offer was sent to Russia despite heated debates within the administration over what the next step should be in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The article reports, “U.S. officials were split on how to handle the Ukraine war, which started nearly a year ago. Burns and Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, "wanted to end the war quickly so they could focus on China," while Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin "didn't want to let Russia get away with destroying the rule-based peace order and called for massive military support for Ukraine."