The Trump administration is developing a 28-point proposal to end the war in Ukraine in quiet coordination with Russian officials, according to a scoop secured by Axios. The framework draws on lessons the White House claims to have learned from recent Gaza diplomacy and clusters measures under four broad themes; peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, security in Europe, and future U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine. It is not yet clear how Kyiv and European partners will respond.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is leading the drafting and has held extended discussions with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund who has been active in back-channel diplomacy. Dmitriev said he spent three days with Witkoff and members of Trump’s team in Miami from 24 to 26 October and expressed optimism because he believes Moscow’s position is being heard. Witkoff postponed a planned meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey, but he discussed the plan earlier this week in Miami with Zelensky’s national security adviser, Rustem Umerov, according to Ukrainian and U.S. officials.
What is on the table
Dmitriev says the drafters are using principles discussed by President Trump and President Vladimir Putin at their August encounter as a starting point. The aim, he adds, is to produce a written document before the leaders next meet. A proposed Budapest summit is currently on hold. Washington has started briefing European allies and Ukraine about the contours of the plan and officials indicate the document will evolve with feedback. Key issues remain unresolved, including the status of territory in eastern Ukraine, where Russia has pressed forward but still holds less land than the Kremlin has demanded.
Ukrainian officials acknowledge that the United States is working on a proposal, while cautioning that Kyiv’s red lines have not shifted. Dmitriev, for his part, distances this work from a separate U.K.-led attempt to craft a Gaza-style plan for Ukraine, which he argues ignores Russian concerns. The White House view, according to U.S. officials, is that there is a real chance to gain buy-in from Kyiv and European capitals if the final text is pragmatic and adaptable.
Moscow contends that improvements in its battlefield position have increased its leverage. U.S. officials counter that any opening for talks still requires Ukrainian consent and a credible path to European security. For European governments, the timing intersects with broader debates about long-term security guarantees, sanctions policy and the costs of sustaining Ukraine’s defence through 2026.
The questions that will decide the plan’s fate
For the draft to move beyond talking points, it will need to clarify how borders and territorial control would be addressed under international law, what form any security guarantees would take and how they would be enforced, how sanctions relief would be sequenced and conditioned, and how accountability, prisoner exchanges and displaced persons would be handled. It will also need to state clearly how the plan positions Ukraine’s path toward Euro-Atlantic integration without giving Moscow a veto.
The circulation of a non-paper to allies, a rescheduled Witkoff meeting with Zelensky or his senior team, and any public reference by Washington or Moscow to the principles that underwrite the draft, are yet to take place. If a written proposal is ready before the next Trump-Putin encounter, European governments will face an early test of unity on what compromises, if any, they can accept in the pursuit of a durable peace.
Sources: Axios, Reuters