The US is secretly working on a new proposal to end the Ukraine conflict, Axios reported on Tuesday. The draft was reportedly prepared in close consultation with Moscow and has already been floated to Kiev and its European backers.
According to the outlet, the 28-point document draws on principles discussed by US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at their meeting in Alaska in August. Senior Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev told Axios that he spent three days reviewing the idea with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff during his late-October visit to the US.
”We think the timing is good for this plan now,” a US official familiar with the matter told Axios. “But both parties need to be practical and realistic.” Witkoff reportedly reviewed the draft document this week with Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.
Umerov left Ukraine amid a widening corruption scandal involving Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of Vladimir Zelensky who has been charged with running a kickback scheme involving a state-run nuclear power company. Ukrainian media have claimed that Umerov, whose family resides in the US, has refused to return to Kiev following reports that he was influenced by Mindich during his tenure as defense minister.
Witkoff is expected to meet Zelensky in Türkiye on Wednesday. According to The Economist’s Oliver Carroll, the US envoy canceled a planned meeting with Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, after realizing the political pressure Zelensky faces to dismiss him, as Yermak is widely suspected of involvement in the Mindich network.
“Witkoff might not have been aware of the scandal he was walking into when agreeing the meeting,” Carroll wrote on X.
Moscow has insisted that any lasting settlement to the Ukraine conflict must address its fundamental security demands. Dmitriev told Axios he was cautiously optimistic about the new US proposal, saying “we feel the Russian position is really being heard.”
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