Journalists write that the 28-point plan that the White House came up with and that was supposed to be written by American negotiators Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner with the head of the Russian investment fund Kirill Dmitriev, is actually a recycled Russian document that was shown to him by a source close to the Russian government a few months ago.
“Several key concepts of the plan, leaked to the US press on November 18, are actually taken from an earlier draft written by Dmitriev shortly after Trump’s return to the White House in late January 2025,” Insider writes.
Trump’s relationship with Putin is like a seesaw
“We are open to such things – to explore what it will take to reach a peace agreement,” continued Witkoff, who was clear about what it would be: “Donetsk and maybe an exchange of territory somewhere. (…) The president will give me a lot of space and powers to reach an agreement,” he added.
“Okay,” answered Ushakov. “That sounds good.”
At the time of the phone call between Witkoff and Ušakov, Trump’s attitude toward Putin did not seem very positive. “I don’t know why he’s continuing this war,” Trump said the same day. He just doesn’t want to end this war. And I think that makes him very evil.”
After the phone call, he changed his mind again
Just three days later (October 17, to be exact), the American president had a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. At that time, Trump was still publicly considering providing Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles with a longer range and also talked about new sanctions against Russia. Witkoff also prepared Ušakov for this in the phone call.
He suggested to the Russians the organization of a phone call between Trump and Putin even before Zelensky’s visit to the White House. “I will go to the meeting because they want me there, but if possible, we should call your boss before the Friday meeting,” he advised Ušakov, who agreed.
“I’ll take it up with my boss and get back to you, okay?” asked Ušakov. And so it happened – the American and Russian presidents spoke on the phone two days later, and the American president described the two-and-a-half-hour conversation as “very productive”. He also mentioned that Putin, apparently after recommending Ushakov, congratulated him on the agreement on Gaza. Despite the fact that Trump previously indicated that he would give his nod to the delivery of Tomahawks to Ukraine, the phone call with Putin apparently led the American president to change his mind.
Timeline:
- On October 13, Trump spoke in the Knesset after the release of the Israeli hostages
- On October 14, Witkoff spoke with Ushakov and discussed the phone call between Putin and Trump
- On October 16, Trump spoke with Putin for two and a half hours
- On October 17, Zelenskiy visited the White House
- Around October 24-26, Witkoff met with Dmitriev in Miami
- On October 29, Ushakov and Dmitriev discussed Russian strategy during a phone call
We must demand the maximum from the Americans
As Bloomberg further reports after obtaining additional recordings, after that call Witkoff met in Miami, Florida with another senior Kremlin adviser, Kirill Dmitriev, staying there until at least October 26. And just a few days later, Dmitriev and Ushakov were already calling together. In Russian, they discussed the optimal strategy for the peace proposal that Moscow was to present to the White House.
Ušakov was of the opinion that they should demand “the maximum”, expressing concern that the US could selectively interpret the proposals, exclude parts and then claim that an agreement had been reached. According to him, this would risk the failure of the negotiations.
Dmitriev, on the other hand, suggested informal sharing of the document. He was convinced that even if the USA did not fully accept the Russian version, they would accept something “very similar”. Later, Ušakova assured that he would stick to the agreed procedure and that the document could be discussed later with “Steve”.
“No, listen. We’ll just present this document (…) and I’ll just informally pass it on directly, saying that this is all informal. And they can present it as their own. But I don’t think they’ll take exactly our version, but at least it will be as similar as possible,” suggested Dmitriev.
“That’s exactly the point. Maybe they won’t take it and say that we agreed on it. I’m afraid of that,” Ušakov responded. “Maybe they will twist it later, that’s all. That risk exists,” he added.
Dmitriev later claimed on social networks that the transcript of this conversation was fake. “The closer peace is, the more desperate the warmongers are,” he wrote on the network.
They made some concessions
It is currently impossible to confirm exactly what proposals Russia made to the US and to what extent they influenced the resulting 28-point peace plan. But Kiev subsequently came under considerable pressure to accept the proposal, which Witkoff drafted with the assistance of his Kremlin contacts, analysts say.
US officials have even threatened to cut off key intelligence support for Ukraine’s armed forces if the Ukrainian president refuses to accept the proposal. However, after negotiations with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ukraine managed to make some concessions and convince the United States to slow down on the matter.
“The original 28-point peace plan developed by the United States has been fine-tuned with additional input from both sides, and only a few points of disagreement remain,” Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
An attempt to disrupt the peace negotiations
When the US president was asked about the leaked recording, he said that he had not studied the call, but that he had heard that it was a “standard negotiation”. “He has to sell it to Ukraine,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “That’s what a businessman does,” he continued. “You have to say, look, they want it, you have to convince them of it. I suppose he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine, because each side has to give and take.”
As both the Kremlin and Ushakov claim, the leak of recordings between US and Russian officials is an attempt to thwart peace negotiations. “It is unlikely that this was done in order to improve relations,” said a Russian foreign policy adviser.
