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<\/p>\nThe White House\u2019s lead envoy is heading to Russia for a sixth time. Ukraine fears a peace that heavily favors Moscow. A leaked phone call shows the US envoy advising a Kremlin official on how to sweet talk the White House.<\/p>\n
And Russia\u2019s invasion — now in its 46th month — has pushed Ukraine\u2019s beleaguered armed forces closer to the breaking point.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot that happened in the six days since a US-drafted peace proposal first leaked \u2013 not to mention the circumstances under which it was drafted.<\/p>\n
The 28-point plan jolted what until recently had been sputtering efforts to halt the Russian war, something that Trump had pledged to do within 24 hours of taking office in January.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know as of November 26, as diplomats and negotiators from Washington, Moscow, Kyiv, and many other European capitals wrangle over details over a concrete, and controversial plan.<\/p>\n
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Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold back Russian troops in multiple locations across the front line, including near Chasiv Yar.<\/p>\n
The Main Sticking Points?<\/p>\n
After the US plan leaked, and then was given to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader sent his chief of staff and other officials to Geneva for urgent talks with US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy reportedly was blindsided by the plan, which echoed most of the hard-line positions that Russia has held before the invasion.<\/p>\n
The Geneva talks, however, produced an “updated and refined” framework \u2013 a reworked 19-point plan — that would deliver a \u201csustainable and just peace,\u201d both the White House and Zelenskyy’s office said.<\/p>\n
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US President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House last month.<\/p>\n
But Zelenskyy\u2019s comments suggested the thorniest issues might still be on the table. That includes the fate of a chunk of the Donetsk region that the Kremlin has been hellbent on seizing.<\/p>\n
Moscow has repeatedly said it must control all of Donetsk, one of five Ukrainian regions Putin baselessly claims are Russian. Ceding land that Ukraine\u2019s forces have kept out of Russia\u2019s clutches, at great cost, would be a massive concession by Kyiv and could have political repercussions for Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n
Other pitfalls include the Kremlin\u2019s insistence that Ukraine be forever barred from joining NATO and a potential cap on the size of Kyiv\u2019s military.<\/p>\n
The US draft would require Ukraine to \u201censhrine in its constitution that it will not join NATO\u201d and the alliance to formalize a pledge that Ukraine will never be admitted.<\/p>\n
That approach may be unpalatable for Ukraine, which wants freedom to choose its geopolitical partners \u2013 and currently has its NATO aspirations codified in its constitution.<\/p>\n
Ukraine also wants to be able to defend itself from any potential future Russian attack.<\/p>\n
In previous negotiations, Russia called for Ukraine\u2019s military to be under 100,000 personnel. The initial US draft would cap it at 600,000. A European counterproposal would raise that to 800,000 \u201cin peacetime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several top Republican senators have criticized the initial US plan, including former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell<\/a>.<\/p>\n “A deal that rewards aggression wouldn\u2019t be worth the paper it\u2019s written on. America isn\u2019t a neutral arbiter, and we shouldn\u2019t act like one,\u201d he said in a post to X.<\/p>\n White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt claimed there had been tangible progress<\/a>, saying there were only \u201ca few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out.”<\/p>\n Sixth Time\u2019s A Charm?<\/p>\n A real estate developer with no diplomatic background, Steve Witkoff is the man tapped by Trump to lead efforts to find an end to Russia\u2019s war. He\u2019s met with Putin five times already, traveling to Moscow on his private jet.<\/p>\n Some of Witkoff\u2019s prior actions have raised alarm bells to outside observers,<\/a> who fear he is being manipulated or that he misunderstands the war\u2019s deeply intractable historical contours.<\/p>\n Witkoff has relied on translators provided by the Kremlin for his conversations with Putin and other officials, rather than using translators authorized by the US Embassy.<\/p>\n After Witkoff\u2019s last meeting with Putin in August, US and European officials said the envoy misunderstood the geography of Ukrainian territory Putin was claiming.<\/p>\n Representative Don Bacon, a Republican who has criticized the Trump administration\u2019s engagement with Russia, called for Witkoff to be fired.<\/p>\n Sending Witkoff back to Moscow, a visit Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov confirmed would happen next week, is a sign that the White House is eager to cement some or all of the points that were set in Geneva and Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n Another wild-card: Trump mentioned his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, might accompany Witkoff<\/a>, something neither Ushakov nor Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on.<\/p>\n Kushner was reportedly present for previously undisclosed US meeting involving Witkoff and Russian who is also not a diplomat but who has played a starring, unconventional role in negotiations with the Americans: Kirill Dmitriev.<\/p>\n Wait, A Leaked Phone Call?<\/p>\n In late October, Dmitriev, a sharp-tongued, Harvard-trained businessman who heads Russia\u2019s sovereign wealth fund, traveled to Miami, Florida. He met with Republican Representative Anna Luna, giving her what he said were undisclosed Russian files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He also gave her a box of chocolates and a book of Putin quotes.<\/p>\n Dmitriev had been blacklisted in 2022, along with other Russian officials, in punishment for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Trump’s Treasury secretary has called him a “Kremlin propagandist.”<\/p>\n It later emerged that Dmitriev, who was given an exemption by US authorities to travel, had secret meetings with Witkoff and Kushner while in Miami\u2014 reportedly leaving some White House and State Department officials in the dark.<\/p>\n After news of the US proposal emerged last week, several US senators said <\/a>that Rubio told them the draft was Russian in nature, influenced by a Russian, though Dmitriev was not named.<\/p>\n Rubio, who was in Geneva, insisted it was a US draft.<\/p>\n On November 25, not long before Trump announced Witkoff would travel to Moscow, Bloomberg News<\/a> published a transcript of what it said was telephone call between Witkoff and Ushakov.<\/p>\n