As a new 28-point peace plan drafted by the U.S. to end Russia’s war on Ukraine materialized Wednesday, Vladimir Putin’s regime launched a massive missile attack against civilian targets in Ukraine that killed at least 25 people, including three children. Observers say the proposed plan would require enormous concessions from Ukraine and will almost certainly be rejected by Kyiv.

The latest Russian airstrike on Ukraine targeted the city of Ternopil in western Ukraine, killing at least 25 civilians and injuring an estimated 73 more. “The targets were not military positions, but civilians, apartment blocks, and the ordinary places where people live their lives,” remarked Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. The rescue operation was still underway as of midday Wednesday, with Ukraine’s Emergency Service saying that people were still trapped under debris.

The devastating attack was the latest reminder of the seemingly endless nature of the war, which Russia has prosecuted for the last 45 straight months with virtually no progress toward a ceasefire. The Trump administration’s latest attempt to broker one has come in the form of a reported 28-point plan, according to U.S. officials.

As noted by National Review, the plan calls for a series of proposals that would heavily favor Russia, including Ukraine ceding the entire eastern Donbas region to Moscow (even territory currently controlled by Kyiv) as well as Crimea, a 50% reduction in the size of Ukraine’s military, giving up weapons systems including missiles and drones that could reach Russian territory, giving “official recognition to the Russian language and the Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church,” the prohibition of European military security and training deployments within Ukraine, and removing any chance of Ukraine joining NATO.

In return, The Wall Street Journal reported, “Moscow would promise not to further attack Ukraine or other countries in Europe, according to the officials, and would codify that promise in legislation.”

Experts say that not only does the plan not require any meaningful concession from Russia, it would likely merely act as a temporary pause in the fighting before Moscow would decide to invade again.

“[I]t doesn’t have the hallmarks of a just and enduring peace,” Peter Doran, an adjunct senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, observed during “Washington Watch” Wednesday. “Rather, it looks a lot more like a humiliating surrender on the part of the Ukrainians. … Let’s set aside the fact that Russia is demanding that they defang and demobilize their military to a large extent. Let’s set aside the fact that Russia is demanding territory it doesn’t even control, or the fact that none of the leaks so far have made any mention of the stolen children — more than 20,000, perhaps — that Russia has taken from Ukraine. No. The really humiliating part of this agreement [is] the faithful of Ukraine. Russia is demanding that Ukraine make the Russian Orthodox Church the state religion, over and above the heads of all of Ukraine’s Orthodox faithful who don’t want to have that hierarchy over their heads. This has all the hallmarks of a humiliation and not so much of an enduring peace.”

Doran went on to point out that Russia has repeatedly violated past peace agreements.

“[B]ased on the information available … the Russians want territory that they don’t fully control — this would be mainly the provinces in the east and south of Ukraine,” he explained. “They want a future where Ukraine’s military is two and a half times smaller. They are offering some hope for so-called security guarantees. But let’s recall, Russia has broken every single promise it has made over the last 30 years to Ukraine, so it’s hard to expect that they won’t do that again. And it’s offering some enticements to the Trump administration, renewing Russian-U.S. relations, and perhaps there’s some economic trade deals nestled in there.”

Doran further highlighted that there are signals from the administration that the U.S. is still taking Ukraine’s military needs seriously in light of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s current visit to Kyiv.

“[O]ne of the purposes of this visit is to take stock of what Ukraine’s military needs are,” he observed. “So it does show that the administration is very open to the idea that Ukraine will need the ability to defend itself, but also shows that the administration is trying to listen to the Ukrainians in a serious way, specifically on the question of weapons and their future defense. So I take some hope in this.”

At the end of the day, Doran concluded, a successfully negotiated ceasefire from the Trump administration is likely a long way off. “Ultimately, President Trump has been hot and cold on this process. When he’s paying attention, he gets angry. He gets upset at Putin, and then he delegates the negotiations to others. He looks to other issues. He returns to the table — the stove, as you will. He sees the pots are boiling over. He takes action, and then he moves on to other topics. This is a recurring pattern we’ve seen again and again. Expect that pattern to continue for the foreseeable future.”