This is attributed to the Guardian’s Luke Harding:
Some of the phrases in the US’s “peace proposal” for Ukraine appear to have been originally written in Russian. In several places the language would work in Russian but seems distinctly odd in English.
The third point of the 28-point plan reads: “It is expected that Russia will not invade neighbouring countries and Nato will not expand further.”
“It is expected” is a clunky passive construction in English. The Russian version – ожидается or ozhidayetsya – makes more sense and is a familiar verb form. [1]
There are a couple of other examples as well. This is rather characteristic of Harding. Is it anti-Russian. He seems to believe he is being clever. And, it is remarkably stupid.
It is reported Russia’s envoy on this question, Kirill Dmitriev, was involved in working on this plan, (and thus the text of the plan). Presumably, he and his staff work in Russian. And, thus why is it a surprise that some Russian wording has found its way into the final document?
It is clear that Harding expects that the peace plan would have been written, presumably 100% by the US, in English and passed to the Russians for a signature. His apparent cleverness, (in spotting the ‘first language interference’ pattern), actually reveals his colonial mindset. Harding is an extreme case, but he does accidentally reveal something of the widespread liberal attitude to Russia.
Update – the deal is collapsed
In a nice example of ‘inflation’ – a media technique when a point about a part of a document/situation/person’s history is used to characterise the whole – Luke Harding now appears to the claim the whole document was a Russian effort: “Speculation based on the use of language in the plan suggests it may have been written in Russian and later translated into English.” [2] (In fact, it occurs to me that even the “It is expected.. ” language above, is not necessarily ‘Russian’. While you can reverse engineer it to a Russian reflexive verb, the actual language “It is expected…” is not out of place in English in a memorandum type document such as this one).
Of course, all this is part of a concerted effort, in which no doubt British intelligence plays a part, to discredit Trump’s peace plan. And; they have seem to have succeeded. Trump has been backed into a corner by his neo-cons and Russo-phobic liberal internationalists, and together with the barmy leaders in Baltics and the crazies in the Commission, (and the moron Marcon?), they have started a process to come up with a modified version. Since the first version was the least that Russia could accept, that means more war.
Thousands more Ukrainians will die for Europe and the neo-Cons to postpone the moment when they accept their humiliating loss. Just like the West’s Afghanistan. Do you remember Ben Wallace, then British Defence Minister, warning Russia that “invading” Ukraine would be a repeat of their Afghanistan? [3] And, still, curiously, no one in the mainstream media, seems to even think about asking the question: “If we don’t accept this settlement, what is the plan to get a better one?”. There is no plan. No plan. The EU leaders in particular are like some kind of drug-addict just focussed on the next fix, getting through the next media round, and not thinking beyond that. It breaks your heart.
Notes
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/nov/21/europe-latest-news-russia-ukraine-war-updates-zelenskyy-putin-g20
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/23/trump-ukraine-zero-gratitude-peace-plan-international-talks
- https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/defence-secretary-updates-parliament-on-the-latest-situation-regarding-russias-actions-towards-ukraine