OAN Staff Blake Wolf
4:20 PM – Sunday, November 23, 2025
GOP Rep. Michael McCaul advised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky against signing President Donald Trump’s peace proposal, instead opting to advocate for an “ironclad” security agreement.
In an interview with ABC News, McCaul (R-Texas) advised Zelensky to reject the Trump administration’s peace proposal without strengthening security guarantees.
McCaul pointed towards the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which was a security assurance agreement in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for receiving security guarantees from the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
In the 1994 memorandum, the nations agreed to respect Ukraine’s existing borders, sovereignty, and independence, refrain from using or threatening military force, and seek UN Security Council assistance should Ukraine be attacked.
The 28-point peace proposal, drafted by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, includes major concessions from Ukraine, including the forfeiture of Ukrainian land, forgoing NATO aspirations, and reducing the size of the Ukrainian army, in exchange for an end to the war and security guarantees from the United States.
McCaul stated that retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg has begun drafting the framework for a parallel security agreement, arguing that Ukraine should only agree to a defense agreement similar to NATO’s Article 5 agreement, which requires all NATO allies to collectively defend against an attack on a member.
“This is where Keith Kellogg did get involved to write a security agreement, which I hope is more ironclad, like an Article 5-like agreement.”
“Without that, I would not advise Ukraine to sign this. They can’t sign an agreement like Budapest and then allow Russia to invade again,” McCaul stated, noting that Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in the 1994 agreement, “in exchange for what?”
“For nothing, and then Russia invaded again,” he continued. “There was no security agreement. There were just simple assurances given by [former President] Bill Clinton. That cannot happen again.”
“I think there’s flexibility,” McCaul stated, regarding the proposal. “Rubio said within the next 72 hours we’ll know a great deal about whether this goes forward or not.”
McCaul joined Democrat Senator Mark Warner (D-Ind.) in opposing the deal.
“My reaction is it’s awful. It would make Neville Chamberlain’s giving in to Hitler outside of World War II look strong in comparison,” Warner stated, going on to argue that the proposal is “almost a series of Russian talking points.”
“This would be a complete capitulation and that’s why I think you’re hearing from Congress, both sides, people pushing back … It feels like this was a plan that they took almost entirely from the Russians,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin warned that Ukraine should engage in negotiations “now” or continue to lose territory as Russia continues its offensive, weakening Kyiv’s negotiating position even further.
“Room for maneuver regarding decision-making is shrinking as territories are lost,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Friday. “Continuing is senseless and dangerous for them.”
In response to the latest U.S.-drafted proposal, Putin revealed that Russia “agrees with these proposals and [is] ready to show the flexibility that has been offered to us,” while arguing that Ukraine and its European allies are “opposed to it” because they are “still under the illusion that they can inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield.”
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