The Kremlin said Tuesday that its stance on a potential Ukraine peace agreement has not shifted since President Vladimir Putin met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska in August, while neither confirming nor denying an earlier report that Washington and Moscow are secretly drafting a new plan to end the war.
“Talks were held in Anchorage, and so far there’s nothing to add to what was discussed in Anchorage,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters when asked about an Axios report that U.S. and Russian officials were working on a 28-point peace proposal.
According to that report, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev met in Miami late last month to discuss a framework modeled partly on Trump’s Gaza ceasefire deal.
Dmitriev told Axios that he was optimistic after spending three days “huddled” with Witkoff and other Trump advisers during his trip to the United States.
“We feel the Russian position is really being heard,” Dmitriev, who also heads Russia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, was quoted as saying.
Moscow has insisted that any peace settlement must recognize its control over occupied Ukrainian territory, impose neutrality on Kyiv, limit Ukraine’s military and lift Western sanctions.
Dmitriev said the prospective ceasefire plan would build on unspecified principles reached between Trump and Putin at their Alaska summit in August and produce a written proposal ahead of their next meeting, which is expected to take place at some point in the future in Budapest, Hungary.
“It’s actually a much broader framework,” the Kremlin official told Axios, adding that the proposal would not only address the ongoing war in Ukraine “but also how to restore U.S.-Russia ties [and] address Russia’s security concerns.”
Axios did not provide details of the 28-point plan, saying only that it covers four areas: peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, European security and future U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to bring a quick end to the war in Ukraine, raising anxiety in European capitals that any hastily brokered deal could cement Russia’s territorial gains. However, Trump himself has admitted that peace negotiations with Moscow are taking longer than he had initially hoped.
Axios reported that the White House believes it may be able to bring Kyiv and European allies on board with its new plan and expects the plan to be revised based on their input. An unnamed Ukrainian official was quoted as saying, “We know the Americans are working on something.”
Witkoff was expected to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey on Wednesday but postponed the trip. The Ukrainian official told Axios Witkoff had met Zelensky’s national security adviser, Rustem Umerov, in Miami earlier this week.
Separately, media outlets reported Wednesday that two senior U.S. Army leaders made an unannounced trip to Kyiv for talks with Zelensky, top military commanders and lawmakers.
One report said U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was expected to meet Russian officials at a later date to encourage greater responsiveness to U.S. military intermediaries after earlier diplomatic channels had faltered.
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