It Has Become Known How Trump Had A "peace Plan" For Ukraine Written Down
- 25.11.2025, 13:20
WSJ reporters revealed the details.
The U.S. began drafting a "peace plan" on Ukraine in October, after President Donald Trump ordered his national security team to develop a plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war in the same way they stopped the fighting in the Gaza Strip. The The Wall Street Journal revealed how the plan was created and who had the most influence on the final document.
Beginning
According to the Journal's sources, the first draft of the plan began to be written by envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on a return flight from the Middle East, riding the wave of success following the agreement between Israel and Hamas, and worked on the document for a month.
Sources say in doing so, Witkoff and Kushner relied on information from a Kremlin insider. A senior Ukrainian official also arranged at least two phone calls with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
Discussions with Russia
The Kremlin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who also has a longstanding relationship with Kushner, made significant contributions to the plan:
"U.S. representatives brought the document to Miami the weekend before Halloween, where they held three days of intense discussions with Dmitriev. Sources said all three had similar views on what the proposal should look like, though Dmitriev had much more specific ideas."
The article noted that Witkoff, talking to U.S. and foreign officials and studying intelligence assessments, concluded that Ukraine was in a weaker military position and would need to make more concessions than Moscow in a peace deal to have any hope of the Kremlin ending the war.
For his part, Dmitriev insisted that Ukraine could never join NATO and must fully withdraw from Donbass and other territories claimed by Russia. Dmitriev also suggested that the U.S. and Russia sign economic agreements in artificial intelligence, energy and many other areas.
Ukraine's Participation
Sources say that when Witkoff and Kushner invited Ukrainian Presidential National Security Advisor Rustem Umerov to Miami to show him the plan, he bluntly told them that it was more favorable to Russia than to Ukraine. He recommended contacting Zelensky by phone to brief him.
November 16, Kushner and Witkoff briefed the Ukrainian president on the plan, the WSJ wrote. Zelensky thanked them and Trump for their efforts to reach a peace agreement. He promised to contact them with his thoughts and said the plan needed to be worked on. That weekend, Zelensky had a second phone conversation with Umerov and Witkoff:
"That said, sources say most of the plan's provisions were written by Witkoff and Kushner before consulting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was given a copy of the plan at the White House during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to Washington on Nov. 18. Officials said Rubio was aware of the Witkoff-Kushner initiative but did not know the full extent of what they had prepared beforehand.
After the details of the plan were made public, the White House faced a sudden crisis over the unilateral terms. Officials said Rubio had to take calls from angry European officials and lawmakers.
Lawmakers told reporters at the conference that Rubio told them that the initial draft was influenced by a certain Russian, without naming Dmitriev. He also said the plan included elements proposed by Umerov and other Ukrainian officials.
Rubio later denied that claim, however.
"The author of the peace proposal is the United States," he said in a statement, adding, "It is based on proposals from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and current Ukrainian proposals."
Rubio, Witkoff and Kushner hastily organized a meeting with Ukrainian and European officials in Geneva and agreed on changes to the plan to make it more acceptable to Kiev, including increasing the cap on the size of Ukraine's armed forces and removing provisions barring Ukraine's membership in NATO. In doing so, they pledge that the final peace plan will ensure that Ukraine's core goals are met.