The White House has been secretly working with the Kremlin to draft a plan to end the war in Ukraine without involvement from Kiev, Axios reported on 19 November, citing US and Russian officials.

The 28-point US plan is reportedly inspired by US President Donald Trump’s post-war plan for Gaza. It focuses on “peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, security in Europe, and future US relations with Russia and Ukraine,” Axios wrote.

The officials did not explain how the plan deals with the most contentious aspect of peace negotiations, namely, Russia’s control of territory in eastern Ukraine.

Since the start of the war in February 2022, Russian forces have successfully occupied much of, but not all of, the territory of four eastern Ukrainian oblasts: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
In September 2022, Russia passed legislation formally annexing them.

Ukraine is demanding that Russia withdraw from these territories entirely, including areas with pro-Russian Ukrainian populations.

Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is leading the US effort to draft the plan and is working closely with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, a US official stated.

Dmitriev, a former Goldman Sachs executive who heads Russia’s $10-billion sovereign wealth fund, has become deeply involved in recent negotiations over Ukraine. He spent three days meeting with Witkoff and other US officials during a visit to Miami late last month.

The Russian envoy told Axios he is optimistic a peace deal can be reached with the US because, unlike past efforts, “we feel the Russian position is really being heard.”

The two sides are hoping to reach a deal that would not only end the violence in Ukraine but also “restore US-Russia ties [and] address Russia’s security concerns,” Dmitriev stated.

“It’s actually a much broader framework, basically saying, ‘How do we really bring, finally, lasting security to Europe, not just Ukraine,’” he said.

The next step is to convince the Ukrainians and the Europeans to accept the plan, Dmitriev added.

Earlier this week, Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s national security advisor, Rustem Umerov, to discuss the plan, a Ukrainian official told Axios.

“We know the Americans are working on something,” the Ukrainian official said

A US official confirmed to Axios that the White House had started briefing European officials about the new plan.

Special envoy Witkoff was scheduled to discuss the plan with Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Ermak, in Turkiye on Wednesday. However, the meeting was canceled amid news of a major corruption scandal.

Timur Mindich, a close associate and former business partner of Zelensky, has been accused by Ukraine’s western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) of involvement in a $100-million embezzlement scheme involving the state-owned nuclear energy firm Energoatom.

As part of the investigation, anti-corruption authorities raided the luxury apartments of Ukrainian politicians in Kiev, one of which had a gold toilet, photos of backpacks full of cash, and audio documents of officials discussing money laundering strategies.

Mindich, 46, managed to flee to Israel a day before the raid. He was born in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where his mother was active in the local Jewish community. His father, Mykhailo, died in Israel in 2006.