© Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
In the US, the Trump administration has secretly started drafting a broad new plan to end the war in Ukraine, according to Axios. Trump's personal envoy has already held closed-door talks with a top Russian official. Ukrainian officials remain largely out of the process.
According to Axios, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff led the effort and met extensively with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and plays a central role in Moscow’s diplomatic outreach on Ukraine. A US official confirmed that Witkoff and Dmitriev held three days of discussions in Miami from 24 to 26 October.
Dmitriev told Axios that his team spent the entire period “huddled” with Witkoff and other members of Trump’s team. He said the talks reflected a major shift, claiming, “we feel the Russian position is really being heard.” Dmitriev expressed confidence that this initiative has better chances than earlier peace efforts.
Witkoff had been scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Türkiye on 19 November but postponed the trip, according to Ukrainian and US officials. Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umierov met Witkoff earlier in the week in Miami, a Ukrainian official confirmed to Axios.
The same official said Ukraine is aware that “the Americans are working on something,” but has not received the full proposal. Axios cited a White House official who said,
“President Trump believes that there is a chance to end this senseless war if flexibility is shown.”
A US official said the administration has started briefing European governments about the plan, but only after the Russia-focused meetings in Miami. The official added that the draft will evolve based on input from Ukraine and its European backers.
“Both parties need to be practical and realistic,” the official said.
Dmitriev stated that the new peace initiative builds on the principles that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to during their meeting in Alaska in August. According to him, the framework is designed not only to address the war in Ukraine, but also to “restore US-Russia ties” and meet “Russia's security concerns.”
The Kremlin envoy said that US officials are now explaining the “benefits” of this approach to both Ukrainians and Europeans. He also claimed that Russia’s growing battlefield gains have boosted its negotiating leverage.
Russian officials are using deported Ukrainian children as a political tool, framing limited returns as signs of goodwill toward the United States, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The Kremlin is presenting these cases as evidence of cooperation with Washington even as it continues large-scale deportations in violation of international law.
Ukraine and international investigators have documented at least 19,500 cases of children forcibly taken from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia - an act recognized as a war crime under international law.
ISW reports that Russian Direct Investment Fund head Kirill Dmitriev and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova have both used the issue publicly. Dmitriev, sanctioned by the US in 2022, responded to First Lady Melania Trump’s announcement of the return of seven Ukrainian children with handshake and flag emojis, suggesting that Moscow views the matter as leverage for restoring ties.
The institute says the Kremlin is advancing two overlapping narratives. The first downplays the scale of deportations by claiming Russia took only “hundreds” of children for humanitarian reasons. The second portrays the issue as an area of cooperation with the US, implying that further returns could follow improved relations.
Russian data contradict these claims. Official reports show children from occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions have been placed in Russian families or institutions across at least 20 regions since 2022. Ukraine has confirmed 19,500 deported children, while Russia’s own commissioner for children’s rights has acknowledged receiving more than 700,000 minors “from Ukraine.”
ISW says Russia is using the return of a few children to obscure the broader campaign of forced deportations and adoptions. The institute notes that these actions constitute war crimes under international law and that Moscow has not documented the identities of the children it has taken.
Connexion