Peace plan for Ukraine. Officials are afraid of the worst-case scenario
U.S. allies and Ukrainian officials struggled Wednesday to understand the terms of the Trump administration's peace proposal to Ukraine. Many of them feared that this meant the United States could give in to Russia's demands in a hurry to end the fight.
European and U.S. officials demanded clarification and said many aspects of the plan remained unclear, including NATO's role and possible territorial concessions by Ukraine to Russia.
According to a person familiar with the matter, the efforts of Trump administration peace envoy Steve Witkoff, who serves as an intermediary in talks with Moscow, began late last month when he met with Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Miami, just as President Trump's hopes of meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin were dashed.
Ukrainian and European officials felt angry surprisedwhen Witkoff's plan became public. This was particularly painful for them because they believed that Trump had finally begun to realize Putin's dishonesty in reaching an agreement, say two people familiar with the matter.
The interlocutors were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues.
Get Putin to negotiate
28-point plan — the existence of which was first reported by Axios — in its current form would require Ukraine significant concessionsincluding military restrictions and the abandonment of large territorial areas, according to a third source familiar with the project. However, the person emphasizes that the points remain open to negotiation.
One aspect that American officials are still considering is whether and how to mention NATO, the interlocutor notes. There has been no information about alliance discussions so far.
Ukraine is applying for NATO membership as safety guarantee against a future Russian invasion. Although some European countries support the initiative, the United States has rejected it and Moscow has long demanded that Kiev not join the defense alliance. European partners are also afraid of granting Russia territorial concessions, which they believe look like a reward for Moscow's aggression and set a disturbing precedent.
The White House declined to comment on the details of the plan or how it came about.
Officials in European capitals struggled to understand the plan with few details. “We were not informed about this,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told reporters on Wednesday. “All international partners are making efforts to finally persuade President Putin to enter into negotiations.”
Steve Witkoff, October 2025ANDREW HARNIK / AFP
“Of course, we support everything that leads in this direction. We are focused on supporting Ukraine, thus making it clear to Putin that there is no alternative to the negotiation process,” he added.
Kyiv is holding its breath
The Russian demands appeared to be a repetition of proposals that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had already rejected during the leaders' summit negotiations and that would have been unacceptable to Kiev, the first source said. These include Moscow's repeated demands that it control more territory in eastern Ukraine than it gained during the war and that Kiev waive future security protection from Western allies.
U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, along with Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and European Army Commander Gen. Christopher Donahue were rushed this week sent to Kievto talk to Ukrainians about the plan, POLITICO reported on Tuesday.
The trip was arranged quickly after a meeting at the White House last week in which Trump said Driscoll — who had planned to travel to Ukraine next month — should be an envoy to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team about the plan, according to an administration official. Driscoll will hold a series of briefings with NATO allies after the meetings in Kiev to update them on the plan and what the United States sees as the next course of action, the official added.
The White House is optimistic about the developing plan, with one senior official saying a framework for ending the conflict can be agreed upon by all sides by the end of this month or even “this week”. The second interlocutor claims that both sides will have to show flexibility.
Ukraine has not publicly commented on this plan. Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Wednesday he was in “constant contact” with Trump's team, including Witkoff, and would work with the United States to end the war “and ensure a just and lasting peace.”
Failures so far
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper noted that Putin has so far rejected all of Trump's peace efforts and instead “simply opted for escalation of the war” Therefore, she said, the European approach is to put pressure on Putin through economic sanctions and support for Ukraine to return to peace talks.
One British diplomat points out that London was not informed about the proposals, despite national security adviser Jonathan Powell's close relationship with Witkoff. A second British official tries to downplay the seriousness with which the plan should be treated.
European and Ukrainian officials have been wary of Witkoff's approach to the conflict for months.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska, August 2025.Drew Angerer / AFP
Some blame his tendency to go it alone for the administration's past failures in peace efforts. His refusals to consult with allies make Witkoff vulnerable at times uninformed or unprepared — POLITICO reports. Officials see his quiet consultations with Russia as an example of how an envoy has become misled by Moscow as to the nature of the conflict and Putin's real goals.
— The Russians clearly saw Witkoff as someone willing to promote their interests, says one EU defense official. — Europeans were not consulted about this. However, there is a group in the White House that has seen Europeans as “spoilers” of the peace process for some time, so in some ways this is not surprising.
A second White House official dismisses concerns that the Kremlin wants to work solely with Witkoff to end the war. Russia should be willing to talk to Washington about ending the war, the source said.
The White House against the wall
On Wednesday, the Kremlin downplayed the importance of the new proposal. “There is nothing new beyond what was discussed in Anchorage,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the proposal, referring to the August summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska.
It is unclear how far work on the peace plan has progressed. According to two sources, many people who would normally be briefed on such a plan at the White House and State Department also were not consulted about Witkoff's renewed initiative.
The first person says Witkoff's plan involved “no inter-agency coordination.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Witkoff followed the usual course interagency procedurewhich would require advice from relevant government departments.
Since taking office in January, Trump and his senior advisers have repeatedly tried to get Russia to seriously commit to ending the conflict. But months of high-level meetings and phone calls, including the Alaska summit, left the US president and his team frustrated and empty-handed.
After months of refusing to impose any financial sanctions on Moscow, Trump imposed restrictions on Russia's two largest oil companies in October. Earlier, plans for a meeting between the US president and Putin in Budapest were ruined.
Driscoll has already been involved in working with the Ukrainians to share their drone expertise, and a deal that Trump is keen to make is also part of this week's talks. According to an administration official, the U.S. president referred to Driscoll as his “drone guy.” He gained Trump's trust thanks to his efforts to reform the bureaucracy surrounding the military's weapons purchases and his more frequent appearances on national television to promote his reforms.
