Russia and the United States are secretly negotiating a peace plan for Ukraine

MoscowRussia and the United States have been secretly negotiating a peace plan for Ukraine, according to US media reports. Axios And Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev has confirmed it. It's a 28-point plan, inspired by the agreement signed in October to end the war in Gaza. Donald Trump's envoy for both the Middle East and Ukraine conflicts, Steve Witkoff, is leading the drafting of the document and has discussed it extensively with Dmitriev, according to the portal.

Dmitriev said in an interview with this outlet on Monday that he spent three days with Witkoff and other members of the US president's team in Miami between October 24 and 26. Witkoff was scheduled to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey this Wednesday to try to revive negotiations for a ceasefire in Ukraine, but Trump's envoy will ultimately not be going. According to a Ukrainian source, Witkoff already discussed the plan with Zelensky's national security advisor, Rustem Umerov, in a meeting this week, also in Miami. The 28-point plan would be divided into four main sections: peace in Ukraine, security guarantees for the country, security in Europe, and the future relationship between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine. However, it remains unclear how it addresses highly sensitive issues such as territorial control of the regions occupied by Moscow. According to Dmitriev, the idea is to build on the principles that Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed upon at their meeting in Alaska in August—although officially there was no major breakthrough—and to make a proposal "to address the conflict in Ukraine, but also to restore US-Russia ties." The goal is to produce a written document before the next meeting between Trump and Putin, which is currently unscheduled, after the failure in organizing the Budapest summit.

Escalation of airstrikes

The news comes after the first Ukrainian attack with US-made missiles against Russian territory since Donald Trump took office. The Kremlin considers this a red line, as it believes these missiles cannot be used without US logistical support, and has responded with one of its largest attacks against western Ukraine. On Tuesday, the Kyiv army fired four ATACMS long-range ballistic missiles at an airbase in Voronezh, from where Russian bombers strike Ukrainian cities. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, air defenses intercepted all four missiles, and there were no injuries. In response, they claim to have neutralized the two launch systems used by the Ukrainian army in the Kharkiv region with Iskander missiles, killing ten soldiers. They also injured about forty people in an attack on residential areas of Kharkiv. The retaliation did not stop there. In the early hours of the morning, Russia carried out one of its worst bombing campaigns against western Ukraine since the conflict began: a total of 476 drones and 48 missiles. In Ternopil, at least ten people were killed and dozens more wounded, according to Volodymyr Zelensky, and there were also injuries in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, as usual, denied that Russia had targeted residential areas and insisted that it only attacks military installations. He also downplayed the United States' responsibility for the launch of the ATACMS missiles and emphasized that they were repelled by air defenses. Donald Trump had been very resistant to the use of US missiles against Russian territory. In fact, in November 2014, he criticized Joe Biden's decision to authorize Zelensky's use of them. Ukraine had never admitted to launching the drones, although experts suggest that, a few days after receiving permission, it fired on the Russian region of Bryansk. In any case, in recent months, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had been working to prevent long-range attacks. Therefore, this move by the Ukrainian army necessarily reveals a shift in the White House's position. This coincides with the visit to Kyiv of two high-ranking Pentagon officials: Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff General Randy George. They are the two highest-ranking US officials to travel to Ukraine since February and are scheduled to meet with military leaders and legislators, and with Zelensky upon his return from Turkey. Their objective is to deepen the exchange of drone technology, as well as to try to involve the Ukrainian leadership in the peace process.