The Trump administration has another peace plan for Russia and Ukraine. One side will likely welcome it far more than the other.

A new plan from the Trump administration to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would reportedly require Kyiv to surrender the territory of the Donetsk region, the U.S. to recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea and the Donbas, and the front line in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to be frozen. The details of the proposal drafted in Washington were reported by Axios, Reuters, the Financial Times, and The Economist, citing insider sources. The new plan “contains the Kremlin’s maximalist demands,” and critics are calling it “a huge concession to Russia.” Meduza reviews what we know.

What’s the plan?

According to Axios, the new U.S. peace plan contains 28 points. Under the deal, Ukraine would withdraw its forces from the Donetsk region and, in effect, hand over the Donbas to Russia. At the same time, the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions would become a demilitarized zone — Russia would also be barred from deploying its military there. The agreement would freeze the front line in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, which Russia has annexed but not fully captured. Following future negotiations, Russia would return part of these territories to Ukraine, though it is unclear which areas exactly.

The plan envisions that the United States and other countries (unspecified, though presumably Kyiv’s European allies) would formally recognize the Donbas and Crimea as Russian, but it wouldn’t require Ukraine itself to do so.

Additionally, Ukraine would agree to reduce the size of its armed forces — by half, according to The Financial Times, or by two and a half times, according to The Economist — and to restrict its use of long-range weapons capable of striking deep inside Russia. According to FT’s sources, the plan obligates Ukraine to recognize Russian as an official state language and to grant the Russian Orthodox Church official status. The plan also stipulates that no foreign troops may be stationed on Ukrainian territory. In exchange for these concessions, the U.S., according to Axios, promises to provide Ukraine with security guarantees in the event of new Russian aggression. However, the details of these guarantees remain unknown.

Washington’s proposal closely resembles a preexisting Russian ultimatum articulated in a June 2025 memorandum delivered to Ukraine during negotiations in Istanbul.

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How this came together

The plan was drafted with the participation of current and former Russian and American officials, as well as representatives from Qatar and Turkey. According to Axios, special envoy Steve Witkoff briefed Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, on the proposal last weekend, November 15–16. “Many of Umerov’s comments were incorporated into the text of the 28-point plan,” Axios reported. This followed a three-day meeting last month in Miami between Witkoff and Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

Ukraine’s government has not agreed to Trump’s peace plan, according to Western journalists. Disagreements over the proposal reportedly derailed a planned meeting in Ankara among Witkoff, Zelensky, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, where officials were supposed to discuss the new White House proposal. An American official told Axios that Zelensky brought a different peace proposal to the talks — a plan developed jointly with Kyiv’s European partners “that Russia will never accept.” A Ukrainian source told the publication that the meeting was postponed because Zelensky asked for broader-format talks that would include European countries. At the same time, according to other reports, the negotiations in Turkey fell apart due to a corruption scandal that has engulfed Zelensky’s cabinet this month.

Washington is pushing Kyiv to accept the plan’s main provisions, sources told Reuters. A U.S. official told Axios that the White House believes Ukraine will likely lose the Donbas region anyway if the war continues, “therefore it is in Ukraine’s interest to reach a deal now.”

Since Trump’s return to the presidency in January, this is already Washington’s fourth attempt to outline possible terms for ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, notes the news outlet Agentstvo. On Tuesday, a senior White House official told Politico that a framework agreement for a ceasefire could be finalized by all sides by late November or possibly “as early as this week.”

It’s the makings of a plan

A source for The Bell with ties to the Kremlin said the U.S. proposal is “not a plan, but a blend of concrete points and good intentions,” adding that some provisions are completely unacceptable to Ukraine. But the very appearance of the plan, he said, is a step forward, even if peace is still a long way off.

European officials, meanwhile, view the process skeptically and believe Russia is once again trying to “play” the United States and Witkoff by orchestrating new talks on Ukraine, reported Bloomberg correspondent Alex Wickham. “Europe is not involved in these talks. It’s unclear who on the U.S. side is backing them. It looks like another Witkoff–Dmitriev idea that concedes to Russian demands,” the journalist tweeted. Wickham noted that his sources suspect Moscow’s renewed interest in a deal is just a ploy to avoid further economic sanctions.

As the Western media buzzes with news of Washington’s new plan, the Kremlin has once again said it is prepared to resume negotiations in Istanbul. “Moscow is open to talks. The pause that emerged came about, in fact, because of the Kyiv regime’s unwillingness to continue this dialogue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

Volodymyr Zelensky, who is visiting Turkey, thanked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his mediation efforts. “Only President Trump and the United States have sufficient power to make this war come to an end, Zelensky tweeted, stressing that “stopping the bloodshed and achieving lasting peace” requires close coordination with Kyiv’s partners and American leadership.