How the US drafted a Russia-friendly peace plan for Ukraine
Crucial input from a Kremlin confidant influenced the document that for a week roiled relations between 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 war just as they had halted the fighting in Gaza.
On a flight back from the Middle East, in the afterglow of 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 war, according to U.S. officials and a person familiar with the situation.
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 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 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 Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has rebuffed repeated attempts by the White House to halt the fighting in Ukraine, without abandoning Kyiv.
“The idea that the United States of America isn’t engaging with both sides equally in this war to bring it to an end is a complete and total fallacy," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday.
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, according to U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter.
The three men had similar views on what a proposal should look like, though Dmitriev had far more specific ideas in mind, officials said.
Witkoff, through conversations with U.S. and foreign officials and reading intelligence assessments, concluded that Ukraine was in the weaker position militarily, officials 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 in a peace deal to have any hope of getting the Kremlin to halt the war.
Echoing longstanding Kremlin demands, Dmitriev insisted Ukraine could never join NATO 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. He recommended getting Zelensky on the phone to brief him.
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 peace 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.
“We continuously conduct consultations, and we are grateful to the United States for listening to us, supporting us and discussing all aspects with us," Umerov said in a statement.
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.
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. Rubio was aware of the Witkoff-Kushner initiative, but didn’t know the full scope of what they had drafted before then, officials said.
A separate U.S. initiative to break the diplomatic deadlock between Ukraine and Russia that was already under way shifted to include the newly-drafted plan.
Sent by the White House, U.S. Army Secretary Dan 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 following 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 peace 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. Rubio fielded calls from irate European officials and lawmakers, officials said.
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 in a statement, 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.
Even Trump seems optimistic. “Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine???," he posted Monday on social media. “Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening."
Write to Robbie Gramer at robbie.gramer@wsj.com, Alexander Ward at alex.ward@wsj.com and Lara Seligman at lara.seligman@wsj.com
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