Explainer: What is new in the US-Russia plan for Ukraine?

Moscow’s plan for Ukraine, reportedly recently presented to the US, repeats most of the Kremlin’s maximalist demands, including Kyiv ceding its territory and Ukraine’s demilitarisation. What is new about this alleged framework is the timing of Russia's push for it.

According to the latest reports, Russia has passed on to Washington its latest framework proposal to put an end to its all-out war against Ukraine. The plan repeats most of Russia’s maximalist demands, which Moscow has been putting forward since the very first days of its full-scale invasion, and often refers to them as the reasons it started the war in the first place. The US media report that the plan includes calls for Kyiv to give up areas of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine that it still controls, significantly cut the size of its armed forces, and even give up on many of its weapons. Who is behind the plan? The revealed framework reflects Moscow’s long-standing demands on Ukraine, which include only concessions from Kyiv, not from Moscow. The plan is believed to have been drafted by Russia’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, who then passed it to US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff.Putin’s aide Dmitriev was in the US in October for talks with Washington officials, after Trump's next meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin was cancelled and the White House announced tough sanctions on Russia. Dimitriev reportedly met Witkoff in Miami in late October for three-day talks. Officially, Dmitriev is the head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF and the Russian president’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation. Kyiv-born and US-educated, he has been a key figure in the Kremlin's outreach to the Trump administration. He also participated in the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska in August. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Dmitriev was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, which designated him a “close associate of Putin” and his family.The US government reportedly temporarily lifted sanctions against Dmitriev earlier this year to allow the State Department to issue him a visa to enter the US. What is the US administration saying? Trump has been losing patience with the Kremlin since his Alaska meeting with Putin.In October, for the first time since his return to the White House, Trump announced tough sanctions on Russia, including its two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.US lawmakers are now drafting a bill that would sanction countries purchasing Russian oil and gas, aiming to choke off Moscow’s primary revenue stream as peace negotiations remain stalled.A proposed US Senate bill could impose a 500% tariff on countries that trade with Moscow, including major buyers such as India and China. The US president said on Sunday that “any country that does business with Russia will be very severely sanctioned”.However, Moscow’s willingness to freeze its war against Ukraine at the current contact line and start further peace negotiations would stop the proposed new sanctions.This is the base of Trump’s proposal, which Ukraine and the European Union support. With the new reports circulating about the most recent Moscow framework, which included only concessions from Ukraine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington "will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict."“Achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions," Rubio stated in a post on X on Thursday.EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned on Thursday that for any plan to work, it would need to have Ukrainians and Europeans on board, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said "the Ukrainians do not want any form of capitulation".Reaction in KyivThe reported plan has not drawn any optimism or support from Kyiv. For Ukraine, any territorial concessions to Russia are a no-go, as Kyiv repeatedly said that it would never agree to give up its temporarily occupied territories to Moscow. The Kremlin’s maximalist demands are seen in Ukraine as Kyiv’s capitulation, which has nothing to do with compromise. Meanwhile, senior Pentagon officials went to Ukraine on Thursday to "discuss efforts to end the war," the US military has said.The team, believed to be the most senior military group to travel to Kyiv since Trump took office in January, is led by US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. He is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday.The talks are expected to focus on the military situation on the ground and on plans for a possible ceasefire. It is unclear whether Moscow’s new proposal will be discussed. After talks with the US army secretary on Wednesday, Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal posted on X: "We focused on the next steps for implementing the historic defence agreements reached by President Zelenskyy and President Trump."Ukraine’s president visited Turkey on Wednesday, before meeting the delegation from the Pentagon. Zelenskyy said his idea was to restart negotiations with Russia, stalled for four months after a series of low-level talks in Istanbul. He explained Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “proposed conversation formats” and added that Ankara is “ready to provide the necessary platform.”According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine will continue to support the US leadership in its efforts to put an end to Russia’s war, likely referring to the idea of freezing the fighting at the current contact line as the first step. “Only President Trump and the United States have sufficient power to make this war come to an end.” Ukraine’s anti-corruption investigation Russia’s alleged new plan comes at an unfortunate time for Kyiv, as Ukraine is being rocked by the largest anti-corruption investigation of Zelenskyy’s presidency. Zelenskyy is expected to hold talks with government ministers, the parliamentary leadership, and members of his Servant of the People faction on Thursday.For over a week now, Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs have been releasing findings from a lengthy investigation into a corruption scheme involving the state-owned Energoatom company. Some Ukrainian cabinet ministers have already resigned over their alleged involvement in the case. Zelenskyy also announced sanctions against his former business partner Timur Mindich, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the corruption scheme and has fled Ukraine. Ukraine’s civil society and lawmakers have also called for Zelenskyy to sack his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.Perhaps the Ukrainian president's most trusted political ally, Yermak has been playing a prominent diplomatic role in negotiations with the Western partners, including the US administration. His far-reaching powers have been widely discussed among Ukrainian and even foreign officials.He was not even named among the accused in the ongoing anti-corruption investigation. With Russia’s intensified attacks against Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure and the corruption scandal sending shockwaves across Ukraine and beyond, Moscow’s so-called new plan has come at a challenging moment for Ukraine’s leadership.