The US-backed 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, unveiled last week, "is based on a Russian-authored document submitted to the Trump administration in October," Reuters reports, citing three sources familiar with the matter, UNN writes.
Details
"The Russians shared a document outlining Moscow's terms for ending the war with senior US officials in mid-October, after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington," sources said.
The document, an unofficial communication known in diplomatic parlance as a "non-paper," contained "language that the Russian government had previously put forward at the negotiating table, including concessions that Ukraine had rejected, such as giving up a significant portion of its territory in the east."
This, the publication notes, "is the first confirmation that the document was a key element in the 28-point peace plan."
The US State Department and the Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
The White House did not directly comment on the non-paper, but referred to Trump's comments that he was optimistic about the progress of the 28-point plan, the publication writes.
"In hopes of finalizing this peace plan, I have instructed my special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to meet with President Putin in Moscow, and at the same time, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will meet with the Ukrainians," Trump wrote.
As the publication notes, "it is unclear why and how the Trump administration relied on a Russian document to shape its own peace plan." "Some senior US officials who reviewed it, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, believed that Moscow's demands would likely be completely rejected by the Ukrainians," sources said.
After the document was submitted, Rubio had a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, "during which the document was discussed," sources said.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva this week, Rubio acknowledged receiving "numerous written non-papers and other similar things" without going into detail.
Since Axios first reported on the peace plan last week, skepticism has grown among US officials and lawmakers, many of whom view the plan as a list of Russian positions rather than a serious proposal.
Nevertheless, the United States pressured Ukraine, warning that it might cut its military aid if Ukraine did not sign on.
"The plan was drafted, at least in part, during a meeting between Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Kirill Dmitriev, head of one of Russia's sovereign wealth funds, in Miami last month," the publication writes. "Few in the State Department and the White House were informed of this meeting," two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Witkoff had offered advice to a senior Kremlin aide, Yuri Ushakov, on how Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin should speak to Trump. According to transcripts of conversations obtained by the news agency, Ushakov and Witkoff hinted at a possible "20-point plan" as early as October 14. The scope of this plan, it added, apparently expanded during subsequent conversations with Dmitriev.
The US proposal, which caught officials in Washington and Europe by surprise, sparked a flurry of diplomatic efforts across three continents. The initial plan has since changed dramatically, with nine of the original 28 points being cut after negotiations between senior US and Ukrainian officials, ABC News reports.
A bipartisan group of US senators said on Saturday that Rubio told them the 28-point plan was not a US plan but rather a Russian wish list, although the White House and State Department strongly denied that Rubio characterized it as such.
In further discussions, a high-level US delegation, which included Rubio, agreed to exclude or modify some of the plan's most pro-Russian parts during meetings in Geneva with European and Ukrainian officials.
As the publication writes, Driscoll went to meet with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi. A Ukrainian delegation was also in the UAE for talks with the US team, according to a US official.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said they supported the modified framework of the peace agreement that emerged from the latest talks, but stressed that the most sensitive issues - territorial concessions are particularly contentious - need to be resolved at a potential meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump.
Addition
On November 20, Axios published US President Donald Trump's 28-point peace plan between Ukraine and Russia, which provides for territorial concessions, restrictions on the Ukrainian armed forces, certain US guarantees, and economic components.
Against this background, Ukraine and the United States began negotiations in Geneva. The negotiations lasted on November 23 and 24. As a result, the initial 28-point peace plan of the United States was reportedly reduced to 19 points. Trump had put the number at 22 points.
The Ukrainian delegation, after a meeting with the US in Geneva, stated that there is "a common understanding of the key terms of the agreement," and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to visit the US "at the earliest possible date in November" to reach an agreement with Trump.
American press reported on November 25, citing an unnamed American official, that the Ukrainian side had agreed with the United States on the terms of a potential peace agreement.
This comes amid reports that Trump pressured Zelenskyy for a deal before the American Thanksgiving Day, November 27, although US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called this deadline flexible.
The President's Office stated that any discussions of territorial issues would likely take place at a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump.