U.S.'s Ukraine Plan Had Kremlin Input --- Crucial input from a Kremlin confidant influenced the document that for a week roiled relations among the U.S., Ukraine and Europe

“WASHINGTON -- It started with an October order from President Trump to his national-security team: Come up with a plan to end the Ukraine conflict just as they had halted the fighting in Gaza.

 

On a flight back from the Middle East, after brokering a deal between Israel and Hamas, envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner began writing the first draft of what would eventually become a 28-point peace framework to end the four-year conflict, U.S. officials and a person familiar with the situation said.

 

Ukraine told the Trump administration on Tuesday it would sign the U.S.-drafted deal to end the conflict with Russia, U.S. officials said, despite Washington and Kyiv signaling remaining diplomatic hurdles and Moscow weighing how to respond.

 

Representatives for Ukraine and Russia met with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, part of the Trump administration's renewed push to revive talks.

 

On Tuesday, the president wrote in a Truth Social post that he has directed Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Driscoll will meet with the Ukrainians.

 

Witkoff and Kushner's monthlong effort to draft the proposal relied on input from a Kremlin insider who held secret meetings with the aides in Miami, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said. A senior Ukrainian official also organized at least two calls with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, officials said.

 

But when the plan leaked last week, its terms were weighted in the Kremlin's favor, shocking European governments and Kyiv's supporters in Congress and sparking a multiday trans-Atlantic crisis for the Trump administration.

 

U.S. officials said the plan reflected a good-faith attempt by Witkoff and Kushner to gain the support of Putin, who has rebuffed repeated attempts by the White House to halt the fighting in Ukraine, without abandoning Kyiv.

 

The Russian input came from Kirill Dmitriev, a Kremlin envoy with close ties to Putin who also has a longstanding relationship with Kushner. They brought him to Miami the weekend before Halloween for what would be three days of intensive discussions over dinner and extended conversation at Witkoff's home, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said.

 

Despite absorbing Russia's all-out invasion in February 2022 and forcing it to fight at great cost for small territorial gains, Ukraine is still at a disadvantage, the officials said. It would need to concede more than Moscow would to have any hope of getting the Kremlin to halt the conflict.

 

Echoing longstanding Kremlin demands, Dmitriev insisted Ukraine could never join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and should withdraw completely from the Donbas region and other territory wanted by Russia. Ukraine's military, he suggested, should be capped at a figure far lower than its current 900,000-strong force.

 

Appealing to Trump's eagerness to expand U.S.-Russia economic ties, Dmitriev suggested the U.S. and Russia should sign economic agreements in the areas of artificial intelligence, energy and much more.

 

Dmitriev didn't respond to requests for comment.

 

When Witkoff and Kushner invited Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's national-security adviser, to Miami to show him the plan, he told them bluntly it was a better deal for Russia than Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said.

 

On Nov. 16, Kushner and Witkoff walked the Ukrainian president through the 28-point plan, people familiar with the matter said. Zelensky thanked them -- and Trump -- for their efforts to broker a deal. He promised to get back to them with his thoughts, saying it needed work. Zelensky held a second call with Umerov and Witkoff that weekend, a person familiar with the matter said.

 

A majority of the plan's provisions were written by Witkoff and Kushner before they consulted Russian and Ukrainian representatives, a person familiar with its drafting said.

 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was handed a copy of the plan at the White House during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Nov. 18 visit to Washington, a person familiar with the situation said. Axios reported the draft's existence that evening.

 

A separate U.S. initiative to break the diplomatic deadlock between Ukraine and Russia that was under way shifted to include the newly drafted plan.

 

Sent by the White House, Driscoll arrived in Kyiv on Nov. 19 to discuss defense issues and the prospects for a peace with Russia. After a flurry of phone calls with Vice President JD Vance and other officials, Driscoll received approval to brief Ukrainian defense officials on a version of the U.S. plan, including Zelensky the next day.

 

Driscoll also issued a reminder: The White House had cut off intelligence and weapons assistance to Ukraine months earlier before resuming the aid, insinuating Trump could do it again if Kyiv balked at reaching a deal, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said.

 

With the details of the plan out in the open, the White House faced a sudden crisis over the one-sided terms.

 

Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who serves on the intelligence committee, texted Rubio on Saturday morning voicing his concern and confusion about the plan. Rubio also called King and then two other senators at a security conference in Halifax, Canada -- Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Mike Rounds of South Dakota. The lawmakers told reporters at the conference that Rubio told them that the initial draft was influenced by a Russian without naming Dmitriev. He told other lawmakers that the plan included elements from Umerov and other Ukrainian officials.

 

Rubio disputed the lawmakers' claim. "The peace proposal was authored by the U.S.," he said, adding, "It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine."

 

Rubio, Witkoff and Kushner hastily arranged a meeting with Ukrainian and European officials in Geneva and agreed to changes in the plan to make it more acceptable to Kyiv, including a higher cap on the size of Ukraine's military and removal of language barring it from membership in NATO. Officials promise the final peace plan will secure Ukraine's core objectives.” [1]

 

 

1. U.S.'s Ukraine Plan Had Kremlin Input --- Crucial input from a Kremlin confidant influenced the document that for a week roiled relations among the U.S., Ukraine and Europe. Gramer, Robbie; Ward, Alexander; Seligman, Lara.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 27 Nov 2025: A1.