Bombshell Report Says Trump Admin’s Ukraine Peace Plan Was Based on Russian Doc

(Sergey Bobylev / Sputnik via AP) (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The Trump administration’s 28-point plan to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine was based on a “Russian-authored paper submitted to the Trump administration in October,” reported Reuters on Wednesday in a bombshell report.

The Trump administration’s plan quickly drew backlash after becoming public last week, including from several top Republican lawmakers. Amid the backlash, a group of bipartisan lawmakers said on Saturday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had told them it was not a U.S. plan but a Russian wish list. The White House and State Department quickly denied that was the case, and Rubio later clarified on social media.

“The peace proposal was authored by the U.S. It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine,” Rubio wrote.

Reuters, citing “three sources familiar with the matter,” backed up the lawmaker’s assertion that the plan had originated primarily with Russia. The report noted:

The paper, a non-official communication known in diplomatic parlance as a “non-paper,” contained language that the Russian government had previously put forward at the negotiating table, including concessions that Ukraine had rejected such as ceding a significant chunk of its territory in the east.

This is the first confirmation that the document – whose existence was initially reported by Reuters in October – was a key input in the 28-point peace plan.

The Reuters report came the morning after Bloomberg News published two stunning phone call transcripts regarding the negotiations. Bloomberg published an October 29 “phone call between Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s most senior foreign-policy adviser, and Kirill Dmitriev, an economic adviser to the Russian president.”

During that call, Dmitriev appeared to suggest that the draft of the recent peace plan came from Russia. “No, look. I think we’ll just make this paper from our position, and I’ll informally pass it along, making it clear that it’s all informal. And let them do like their own. But, I don’t think they’ll take exactly our version, but at least it’ll be as close to it as possible,” said Dmitriev.

Bloomberg published another transcript of a call between Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ushakov, which took place on Oct. 14.

During that call, Witkoff coached the Russians on how to butter up Trump with the use of flattery. Witkoff also said, “I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere. But I’m saying instead of talking like that, let’s talk more hopefully because I think we’re going to get to a deal here. And I think Yuri, the president will give me a lot of space and discretion to get to the deal.”

Ukraine agreed on Tuesday to the Trump administration’s plan, but insisted details still need to be ironed out, specifically, giving up territory permanently to the Russians.