A BOTCHED social media post has exposed a US–Russia channel built around Vladimir Putin’s old demands, revealing a peace plan Kyiv was never meant to see coming.
The Trump administration’s push to end the war in Ukraine has now burst into the open as senior US officials landed in Kyiv to pitch what sources call a US-drafted, Kremlin-flavoured “cash-for-land” deal.
It would force Ukraine to surrender territory, cut its army, and hand tyrant Putin major political wins, even as Russian missiles keep killing civilians.
At the heart of the storm is a swiftly deleted post on X by Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Replying publicly – clearly by mistake – he wrote: “He must have got this from K…”.
The “K”, officials say, almost certainly refers to Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s unofficial envoy to Washington.
Kyiv-born, Stanford-educated, and now the Kremlin’s quiet operator, Dmitriev has become Witkoff’s counterpart in a shadow negotiation that shut out both Ukraine and Europe.
That one slip has cracked open a secret 28-point plan drafted after three days of Witkoff-Dmitriev talks in Miami.
The plan, Ukrainian officials say, includes “territorial concessions” and “reductions in military strength”.
Meanwhile, Russia believes it shows its position is finally “being heard”.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and a high-level Pentagon team landed in Kyiv late Wednesday on what Washington insists is a “fact-finding mission”.
But American and Ukrainian sources confirm the real purpose is presenting the Witkoff-Dmitriev plan.
Talks will focus on the frontline situation and on preparing for what a ceasefire could look like.
A Ukrainian official told CBS that “Presidents Zelensky and Trump have already agreed to stop the conflict along the existing lines of engagement”, though Moscow has refused any ceasefire that doesn’t meet its capitulation demands.
A deal Kyiv never asked for
Two sources told Reuters the White House has signalled to President Volodymyr Zelensky that Kyiv must accept the main points of a US framework that requires giving up territory and weapons.
Ukraine has had “no role” in preparing any of these proposals.
The blueprint mirrors Putin’s longstanding demands: Kyiv must renounce Nato ambitions, abandon claims to territory Moscow says is “Russia”, and swallow severe limits on its sovereign defence.
Russian forces now control roughly 19 per cent of Ukrainian land and are still grinding forward.
The US plan would reportedly see Ukraine hand over Donbas areas it still controls in exchange for a US security guarantee, details of which remain a mystery.
Dmitriev told Axios that “the Russian position is really being heard”.
European diplomats say the plan reeks of a US attempt to “push Kyiv into a corner”.
One said cutting Ukraine’s army “seemed like a Russian demand rather than a serious proposal”.
While Trump officials refuse comment, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted that Washington would keep developing “a list of potential ideas” to end the war because “durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions.”
Leased homeland
It comes amid reports that Kyiv would be forced to lease the Donbas to Russia.
According to the TelegraphMoscow would pay a rental fee to hold territory it already occupies or seeks to seize.
And Ukraine would keep legal ownership, but not control.
The 28-point plan would force Ukraine to cut its military by half, abandon all long-range missiles, and bar foreign troops from its territory.
It would end US military assistance altogether, make Russian an official language, and grant the Russian Orthodox Church formal status in the occupied areas.
This is exactly the Kremlin’s preferred endgame: freeze the war on its terms, lock in territorial gains, weaken Ukraine permanently, and fracture Western unity – all while avoiding the sanctions that come from refusing to talk.
Ukrainian officials dismissed the plan outright.
After it reached Kyiv, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine Lt Gen Keith Kellogg abruptly resigned.
Gaza-style plan
The plan is said to flow from “principles” Trump and Putin agreed during their meeting in Alaska.
Like the Gaza deal Trump is trying to force through, the Ukraine draft follows a multi-stage structure covering “peace”, “security guarantees”, “security in Europe”, and future US-Russia relations.
America has been briefing European partners only in recent days, with many saying they were blindsided.
Dmitriev says the timing is perfect because Russia’s military leverage is growing.
Moscow has stepped up attacks, with more than two dozen civilians killed in Ternopil this week alone.
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Kyiv says the US must show “effective, strong” leadership to end the war.
Zelensky, in Turkey this week, again stressed that “only President Trump and the United States have sufficient strength for the war to finally come to an end.”
What we know about the peace plan so far
• It’s a secret 28-point plan drafted by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin’s unofficial negotiator Kirill Dmitriev after talks in Miami.
• The core trade-off: Ukraine gives up land; the US offers security guarantees.
• Ukraine would be pushed to hand over the entire Donbasincluding the 15 per cent it still controls.
• The area would become a demilitarised zonewith Russia effectively running it and paying a rental fee under a “cash-for-land” model.
• Ukraine’s military would be cut in half and stripped of long-range weapons.
• US military aid would endand no foreign troops could be stationed in Ukraine.
• Russian language and the Russian Orthodox Church would gain official status.
• Ukraine could seek US and European security guaranteesbut only if it accepts these concessions.
• Kyiv wasn’t involved in drafting the planand European allies were kept in the dark.
• Russia shows no sign of softening its demands as the US prepares to present the plan to Zelensky.