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The Ukraine-war-following press and commentators have had to weigh in on the latest bright shiny object, in the form of rumors of revived peace talks between the US and Russia. An outline of the purported 28 point plan is on Twitter; Larry Johnson reports it came from the Russian negotiator, Kiril Dimitriev, a special envoy to Putin.
Full text of 28 point Trump peace plan that is published by Ukrainian MP & media:
1. Ukraine’s sovereignty will be confirmed.
2. A full and comprehensive non-aggression agreement will be concluded between Russia, Ukraine, and Europe. All ambiguities of the past 30 years will be… pic.twitter.com/vRrunW0q8a— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) November 20, 2025
The negotiation scheme (not clear whether this term sheet or a somewhat similar outline of key provisions) has already been rejected by Ukraine and the Europeans, although Bloomberg says Zelensky after having been browbeaten by a delegation of US military officials is deigning to entertain it.
Us Army Sec Driscoll, Army Chief of Staff Gen George, and Gen Donahue (US Army Europe & Africa) have just delivered one-line message to Zelensky – THE WAR IS LOST, NEGOTIATE NOW OR DIE NEXT WEEK. Listen to podcast with Jamarl Thomas. https://t.co/h28QrYk7zn pic.twitter.com/7cV8H3b7lu
— Dances_with_Bears (@bears_with) November 20, 2025
As we show below, Johnson and other Russia-sympathetic commentators have described in detail this proposal will be unacceptable to the Russian side.
This outcome should come as no surprise. We have been pointing out since the idea of US-Russia negotiations came up that they would fail due to the lack of an overlap in the bargaining positions of both sides…..which are not the US and Russia, but Russia and Ukraine, with Ukraine backed by an increasingly divided set of coalition partners.
Before we get to issues of substance, as in highlighting why many of the points in this plan are unacceptable, let’s consider oft-neglected process issues.
Despite the press treating these provisions as hashed out by the US and Russia, neither negotiator is operating in an official capacity. Steve Witkoff is not a member of any US official body but is a special advisor to Donald Trump. Dimitriev is operating in an analogous capacity for Vladimir Putin. Both should be viewed as agents who cannot bind their principals but can float ideas. It is not clear how much official backing any of these ideas had. The Russians are well aware of Witkoff’s inability to make firm commitments. When Witkoff met with Putin in early August, Witkoff presented a proposal that had enough promise for Putin to agree to meet Trump in Alaska. As has since been recounted, Putin felt it necessary to review all the terms with Trump in person and get his confirmation that Trump was on board with them. Similarly, Larry Johnson just interviewed the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Maria Zharakova. She said the ministry had not received a formal document. So as far as the Russian government is concerned, this is still a trial balloon, although presumably they will be in receipt soon.
Aside from the Russian disposition to adhere to formalities, another reason for its skepticism is that the US cannot commit key members of the coalition, Ukraine, the UK, and European states, and they have not been on board with the process of settling the war, save unless “settlement” is tantamount to Russian capitulation. That happened dramatically with the flip-flop after the Alaska summit, where Lavrov later reported that Trump said he would get Zelensky to agree to the outline then. Instead, after meeting with Zelensky, Trump repudiated the preliminary deal and reverted to the older Ukraine “ceasefire first, deal if ever later” formula that Trump had dropped in Alaska.
We see again and again Trump pretending he can be a broker, when the US is a principal. The tacit assumption has been that the US can browbeat Ukraine, the UK and Europe into compliance when that had not happened. And it is vastly less likely to happen than ever due to the US refusing to fund the war and cutting back on NATO support. He who has the gold sets the rules, but gold-lover Trump has forgotten that. Europe has accepted the premise that it will have to fund Ukraine even though it has no idea as to how to do so ex stealing Russia’s frozen assets.
There’s a lot of speculation as to why this scheme now, when that line of speculation does not seem productive, given how erratic Trump is. But since Trump knows nothing beyond what Fox News and key insiders tell him, the idea that he was trying to take advantage of a small beer corruption scandal, relative to all the hands-over-fists looting of foreign contributions, seems improbable. That is confirmed by the very deep and detailed reading of the political tea leaves by the site Events in Ukraine, which sees the scandal uproar as the doings of opposition figures taking advantage of rising upset in the Rada over the prospect of a Ukraine loss, plus simmering resentment over the earlier Zelensky attempt to quash the investigation bodies. Alexander Mercouris reports he has confirmation of that general story line from a Hungarian contact, who points out that the anti-corruption agencies are funded by the EU, so there’s no US nexus. The UK and EU do not want Ukraine to settle the war. A rare official editorial weighs at the Financial Ties in against the idea of a unity government (and any move to replace Zelensky now) as too destabilizing, so they press for a house-cleaning instead.
A “national government of unity” is what the Rada rebels led by former Prime Minister Petro Poroshenko were seeking, so the Financial Times editorial suggests they lack the external support they would need.
It seems just as likely that Trump felt the need to again look like the driver of events after his Epstein climbdown and now pushback on Venezuela, including a commercial urging members of the military to refuse unlawful orders. Mind you, the latter went live after the Witkoff-Dimitriev talks had gotten going, but that along with continuing deteriorating polls shows that Trump is facing more and more opposition. One of the last things he wants is to be depicted as having lost Ukraine. Trump is deluded enough to think he can somehow get a deal despite the vast evidence that the only one that could happen is some form of Ukraine capitulation.
Let’s look at some of the many thumb’s down reviews of this tired rerun of the peace pact drama.
