Conversations involving the two main protagonists drawn up the 28-point peace plan (28PPP) were caught on tape giving damning details of the negotiations that lead up to the release of the plan, Bloomberg reported on November 25.

The original version of what has been dubbed the Witkoff-Dmitriev plan, named after its reported authors, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, caused a storm of controversy, but remains the most serious attempt to end the war in Ukraine since the Istanbul peace deal in April 2022.

However, there is a great deal of confusion over who wrote the plan, which many have lambasted as simply being a Kremlin wish list of demands for Ukraine’s capitulation. The story was broken by Axios on November 19 and initially Witkoff suggested that Dmitriev leaked the story in a social media post. Dmitriev later denied that accusation, in the transcript of a phone call between him and Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy advisor, suggesting he was both the author and the source of the leak. Axios has since claimed Dmitriev was not the source of the leak.

Dmitriev-Ushakov call

The transcript of a leaked call between Dmitriev and Ushakov on October 29 published by Bloomberg shows them discussing what appears to be the 28PPP which Dmitriev suggested should be leaked to the press to get the ball moving on negotiations. Ushakov expressed hesitancy, afraid that it could back fire and Russia would be blamed for authoring the plan – which is what happened.

However, at the conclusion of the conversation the men appeared to proceed with the plan to release the draft list of proposals.

Dmitriev challenged the authenticity of the recording with a one word post on social media: “Fake.”

The transcript shows compelling evidence that it was Dmitriev that leaked the list of proposals, first published by Axios last week.

“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,” Dmitriev said, according to the transcript.

Ushakov was nervous about going public but gave his go ahead to release the list.

“Well, that’s exactly the point. They might not take it and say that it was agreed with us. That’s what I’m afraid of… They might twist it later, that’s all. There is that risk. There is. Well, alright, never mind. We’ll see,” Ushakov said.

Witkoff on Trump

More damning is a transcript of another conversation, also published by Bloomberg, that Witkoff schooled Ushakov on how to deal with US President Donald Trump.

The call offers the first direct evidence of behind-the-scenes efforts by the Trump administration to broker an end to the war.

In a five-minute conversation on October 14, Witkoff advised Ushakov on how to frame the proposal with Trump. According to the transcript by Bloomberg, Witkoff said, “We put a 20-point Trump plan together that was 20 points for peace and I’m thinking maybe we do the same thing with you.”

He also suggested arranging a call between Trump and Putin ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s White House visit on October 17, using the recent Gaza ceasefire deal as diplomatic leverage.

Witkoff proposed modeling the plan on the recent Gaza agreement, telling Ushakov that he and Trump had created a “20-point plan for peace” and could develop a similar one with Russia. He advised Putin to call Trump, congratulate him on the Gaza deal, and present Russia as eager for peace before Zelensky visited the White House.

“Here’s what I think would be amazing,” Witkoff said. “Maybe he says to President Trump: you know, Steve [Witkoff] and Yuri [Ushakov] discussed a very similar 20-point plan to peace and that could be something that we think might move the needle a little bit, we’re open to those sorts of things.”

Trump and Putin held the call two days later on October 16, at Russia’s request, which Trump described as a “very productive” conversation. Following up on that call, Witkoff met with Dmitriev for three days in Miami from October 24 where they thrashed out the details of the 28-point plan.

On his return to Moscow, Dmitriev immediately called Ushakov on October 29 to discuss the results of the meeting and a plan to leak the list to the press.

At the time of the Witkoff-Ushakov call, Trump had just secured the release of the final 20 hostages held by Hamas and addressed the Israeli Knesset, becoming the first US president to do so since 2008. However, his stance on Putin had cooled. “I don’t know why he continues with this war,” Trump said on October 14. “He just doesn’t want to end that war. And I think it’s making him look very bad.”

The White House is defending Witkoff over the call made on an insecure line, in breach of regular diplomatic protocols. Trump told reporters he had not reviewed the call but described Witkoff’s approach as a “standard negotiation.” He added, “He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s going to sell Ukraine to Russia. That’s what a dealmaker does… I would imagine he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine, because each party has to give and take.”

Next steps

The transcript supports the theory that Witkoff met with Dmitriev in Miami on October 24-26 where they thrashed out the basis of the plan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commenting on the plan on November 25 said that it was largely based on agreements reached by Trump and Putin at the Alaska summit on August 15 and was “largely acceptable” to the Kremlin.

“The original 28-Point Peace Plan, which was drafted by the United States, has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides, and there are only a few remaining points of disagreement,” the president said in a post on Truth Social.

Since then top officials from the US, Ukraine and Europe met in Geneva at the weekend and dramatically altered the plan, cutting it down to a 19-point peace plan (19PPP) that removes all the items not directly pertaining to a ceasefire. Since then, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has released an alternative 24-point peace plan (24PPP) that contains many of the EU’s maximalist points that will be unacceptable to the Kremlin, including: no territorial concessions at all, Nato troops stationed in Ukraine, and no cap on Ukraine’s military.

The Kremlin has strongly signaled that while it is positive on the original 28PPP version, Ushakov said the amended European versions were “unacceptable" and very likely to be rejected by the Kremlin.

A US delegation led by US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll met with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi on November 25. Trump has ordered Witkoff to meet Putin in Moscow next week to continue the negotiations.

The talks now enter a delicate stage. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy still needs to meet with Trump to nail down the details of a US proposed security guarantee, which Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustam Umerov, who was also in Miami and also involved in drawing up the 28PPP version, says will be key to any deal for Bankova (Ukraine’s equivalent of the Kremlin). That meeting may take place as soon as this week, according to comments from the Ukrainian side.

Then the plan needs to be presented to Putin by Witkoff, which may happen next week. In a National Security Council meeting last week, Putin said that the Kremlin is open to a peace deal agreement, but if its demands are not taken into account he was prepared to continue the military operation in Ukraine. Putin signaled that the Kremlin wants to negotiate using the original Witkoff-Dmitriev version of the plan, the outlines of which were agreed at the Alaska summit, but is not prepared to discuss the later European-supported versions.