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, although the Kremlin has publicly distanced itself from it. It is 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. The plan would be divided into four main sections: peace in Ukraine, security guarantees for the country, security in Europe, and the future relations between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine. As explained in the Financial Times Sources familiar with the proposal say the aim is to force Zelensky to cede Donbas, accept a reduction in the size of the Ukrainian army, and renounce the use of certain weapons. 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 make a proposal "to address the conflict in Ukraine, but also to restore US-Russia ties." All of this is intended 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

The enthusiasm in Washington is such that White House sources claim in Political that an agreement between Russia and Ukraine is possible this week. However, nothing indicates that the situation should be resolved hastily, especially considering that the positions of both sides have been far apart for months and that this new framework was designed outside of Kyiv. Furthermore, Witkoff was scheduled to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey on Wednesday to try to revive ceasefire negotiations, but ultimately Trump's envoy did not attend. According to a Ukrainian source, Witkoff had already discussed the plan with Zelensky's national security advisor, Rustem Umerov, in a recent meeting in Miami. Two high-ranking Pentagon officials will be tasked with convincing the Ukrainian president: Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff General Randy George, who have been on an official visit to Kyiv since Wednesday. They are the two highest-ranking US officials to travel to Ukraine since February and also two new players in this negotiation process. Wall Street JournalThey could both then head to Moscow, although the Kremlin denies that they are expected there.

Escalation of airstrikes

This news comes after the first Ukrainian attack with US-made missiles against Russian territory since Donald Trump took office. Moscow considers this a red line, as it believes these missiles cannot be used without US logistical support, and has responded with one of the largest bombing campaigns against western Ukraine. On Tuesday, the Kyiv army fired four ATACMS long-range ballistic missiles at an airbase in Voronezh, from where Russian aircraft 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 approximately 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 25 people were killed and another 70 wounded, and there were also injuries and damage to energy infrastructure in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, as usual, denied that Russia had targeted residential areas and insisted that it was only targeting military installations. Furthermore, he downplayed the US responsibility for the launch of ATACMS missiles and emphasized that the Russian military counters Ukrainian attempts to launch attacks with the help of Western weaponry. 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 missiles, 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.