The US had been pressuring Ukraine with a “peace plan” drafted not in Washington, but in Russia, the state that has been waging Europe’s largest war since World War II for four years and has committed more than 190,000 war crimes since 2022. Reuters reported this, citing three well-informed sources.
This suggests that the security guarantees for Ukraine outlined in the document were also not coordinated with NATO allies or European partners. The absence of such guarantees makes Kyiv vulnerable to potential future Russian aggression.
The aggressor can substitute real peace with capitulation demands
And even advance those demands through Ukraine’s closest allies. According to the sources, the 28-point “peace plan” backed by the US was based on a Russian-authored document and was delivered to US President Donald Trump’s administration in October.
The plan was drawn up, at least in part, last month in Miami during a meeting between Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund.
Trump envoy Witkoff coached Putin’s aide on “peace plan” for Ukraine without inviting Kyiv to talks, leaked recordings reveal
Two sources say that very few people in the State Department or the White House were aware of the meeting.
The plan was handed over shortly after Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington.
Zelensky arrived amid newly imposed US sanctions on Russian oil and the possible transfer of Tomahawk missiles, the long-range weapons that were later rejected by the US president.
A dangerous precedent for the world's security
The Russian peace plan establishes a dangerous precedent in which big states can be rewarded for invading their neighbors. According to the document, Ukraine, the victim of aggression, would have to cede territory to Russia.
The text provided by Moscow included proposals that had been previously raised in negotiations, including demands that Ukraine had already rejected. One such demand was relinquishing a significant part of eastern Ukrainian territory.
It remains unclear why or how the Trump administration ended up using a Russian document as the foundation for its own “peace plan.”
Sources said that some senior US officials who reviewed the Russian document, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, believed Moscow’s demands would almost certainly be categorically rejected by Ukraine.
Since the first report on the “peace plan” by Axios last week, skepticism has grown among US officials and lawmakers, many of whom viewed the plan as a compilation of Russian positions rather than a serious proposal.
The timing of the first mentions of the plan coincided with the revelation of the Ukrainian corruption scandal. As per reports, members of Ukraine’s EU-backed anti-corruption agency met with an FBI representative in Kyiv to discuss the scandal, which has lowered Zelenskyy's public approval ratings. According to the "peace plan", Ukraine was required to hold elections within 100 days.
Recently, representatives from both agencies met in connection with the case of Energoatom, Ukraine's sole nuclear operator.
Meanwhile, the US reportedly pressured Ukraine by warning that military support could be reduced if Kyiv refused to sign the plan.
