Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world
The US is leaning heavily on Ukraine to accept within days a new peace plan it has drawn up with Russia and which seems heavily lopsided towards Moscow’s long-standing demands.
The plan, described as a working document liable to change, is loosely worded and sketchy on details while also sweeping in scope. It bears the fingerprints of its amateur diplomat authors, real estate developer turned US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. Whether other parts of the US administration were on board is unclear, but President Donald Trump has now given the plan his blessing.
The text crosses many of Ukraine’s long-standing red lines, most importantly the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the rest of Donetsk province, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cannot afford to do on military and political grounds. It also says next to nothing about the security guarantees from the US and its other western allies that Zelenskyy has long demanded as a condition for peace. At the same time, the text does not appear to satisfy all of Russia’s demands, such as addressing the “root causes” of the conflict.
Read the full article here
