This afternoon, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that 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. In the hopes of finalizing this Peace Plan, I have directed my Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with President Putin in Moscow and, at the same time, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will be meeting with the Ukrainians.” Further, he, Trump, does not plan to meet with Zelenskyy until the peace deal “is FINAL or, in its final stages.”
This came after a day of reports of, on the one hand, of Trump’s envoy Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll meeting in Abu Dhabi with Russian military officials, and, on the other, of the Kiev-approved so-called “19-Points” being trumpeted in the Western media as the only game in town. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and his negotiating partner of Nov. 24, the head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, were presented as having taken over the negotiation process—yet, for what it is worth, Trump’s announcement seems to put Witkoff and Driscoll in the saddle, not Rubio.
U.S. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jeffrey Tolbert said Driscoll and his team were engaged in talks “late Monday and throughout Tuesday” (Nov. 24-25) with Russian representatives aimed at securing a “lasting peace” in Ukraine, according to ABC News. He added that Driscoll remains “closely synchronized” with the White House and other national security agencies as negotiations progress. Moscow does not abjure such meetings, but they do not recognize them as actual negotiations, which, they insist, need to involve official channels, such as their Foreign Ministry, as was done in the process leading to the August summit in Alaska. Short of that, they have every intention of finishing the job in Ukraine militarily.
Prior to Trump’s announcement, the head of Ukraine’s NSDC, Rustem Umerov, reported on Nov. 25 on yesterday’s U.S.-Ukraine meeting: “Our delegations have reached a common understanding regarding the key terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva…. We expect the organization of a visit by the President of Ukraine to the United States at the earliest possible date in November to finalize the final stages and reach an agreement with President Trump.” The conceit is that Ukraine and the U.S. now agree on a peace treaty, that Zelenskyy and Trump will work some matters, and then Moscow will have to address that proposal. Trump’s announcement certainly pre-empts that scenario, though it is not clear presently what Witkoff and Driscoll are to present to Moscow and Kiev.
