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The Trump administration is making renewed efforts to bring an end to the conflict in Ukraine with a new peace initiative—reportedly consisting of 28 points—that has surprised many in Congress who support Kyiv. Among the concerned is a Republican lawmaker who has expressed caution regarding what seems to be a proposal favoring Moscow.
This plan is said to have been crafted by Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s lead negotiator for peace talks, in collaboration with Kirill Dmitriev, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The details of this plan have reportedly been shared with only a select group of senior Ukrainian officials.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova mentioned to Russian state media that their ministry has not received any official communication from the U.S. regarding any agreements pertaining to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, key supporters of Ukraine in the U.S. Congress appear to be uninformed about the plan. “I’m not aware of this 28-point plan. It’s good that a strategy is being developed,” remarked Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a prominent Trump supporter and strong advocate for Kyiv, during a Wednesday event organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“I don’t know what this 28-point plan is. I’m glad that we’re coming up with a plan,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a top Trump ally and hawkish supporter of Kyiv, said during an event Wednesday morning hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But Graham added that any plan must be buoyed by strong U.S. military commitments to Ukraine and measures targeting Putin’s ability to fund the war.
Some lawmakers were left to learn the details of the 28-point peace plan largely from reporting in Axios, which broke the story, and the Financial Times, which followed up with details of the plan.
According to these reporters, the plan would have Ukraine give up full control of the eastern territory of the Donbas to Russia, even as Ukraine maintains control of about 12 percent of the territory with a heavily fortified front line, and requires Ukraine to cut the size of its armed forces by half.
“I just heard about it but have not seen any of the details,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told reporters Wednesday.
“I have not been read in on the details of that,” said Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation.
Rep. Don Bacon, the outgoing Republican congressman from Nebraska, criticized the administration for reportedly negotiating with the Russians without the Ukrainians and appearing to pressure Kyiv.
“This sounds like 1938 Munich,” Bacon posted on social platform X, referring to the agreement that is largely criticized as appeasing Nazi Germany with territory at the time and emboldening Adolf Hitler to try to conquer Europe.
Other reported details of the plan include limits on Ukraine’s arsenal of weapons and limiting U.S. military assistance. The Financial Times also reported that the plan bars foreign troops from Ukrainian soil — essentially vetoing ideas for a European or international peacekeeping force to monitor any ceasefire, or potentially blocking Ukrainian partnerships with foreign militaries. Also, Kyiv would no longer receive Western long-range weapons that can strike deep into Russia.
The Financial Times continued that the plan says Russian should be recognized as an official state language in Ukraine and that it should grant official status to the local branch of the Russian Orthodox Church. Kyiv accuses the church of being an arm of the Kremlin’s propaganda, supporting the war in Ukraine.
Many of the points are nonstarters for Kyiv, which has agreed to Trump’s calls for a ceasefire on existing battle lines but rejected demands to cede territory, warning it would only open the rest of the country to future Russian aggression.
Russia is apparently hoping that its military advances and a corruption scandal related to Ukraine’s energy sector weaken the negotiating position of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The irony: exposed Zelensky team corruption makes peace in Ukraine much more likely,” Dmitriev posted on X on Tuesday.
The renewed push for a peace plan comes after Trump last month called off a second face-to-face summit with Putin set to be held in Budapest because he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined the Russian side was not yet serious about ending the war.
The plan’s reported details were met with concern among Ukraine’s staunch supporters in the U.S. and viewed as particularly cynical following a deadly strike by Russia on the Ukrainian city of Ternopil, killing at least 25 people, including three children.
“As Ukraine mourns innocent people murdered in their sleep by a russian terrorist missile, the media reports that the US Administration has shared with Ukraine a new, updated Capitulation Plan,” Olena Halushka, co-founder of the International Center for Ukrainian Victory, a coalition of Ukrainian civil society leaders and think tanks, posted on X.
“No pressure on russia, just Ukraine cutting its own hands and legs. What a disgrace.”
Mykola Murskyj, director of the Razom advocacy team, a U.S.-based nonprofit that advocates U.S. support for Ukraine, said in a statement that “Any durable peace requires a militarily strong Ukraine and firm guarantees that Russia will be unable to reignite its war in the future.”
“Americans around the country want to see Russia forced to end its war and return the Ukrainians it holds hostage, including tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. Nothing about Ukraine can be decided without Ukraine and its people,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Graham is hoping to seize on the peace plan to add momentum to his push to pass a bipartisan bill targeting countries that do business with Russia and aid its war coffers.
“No plan will work unless Putin and his allies believe that we’re serious about more military aid, more capability of Ukraine to hurt Russia militarily, and more economic ruin coming to those who prop up Putin’s war machine,” Graham said.
“When they believe those things then the 28-point plan will work.”
Trump seemed to give a green light last week for Congress to move ahead on Graham’s Russia sanctions bill, called the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025. It is co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), with a veto-proof majority of co-sponsors.
But the pathway to passage is still unclear. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has called for the House to take up the bill first, because the bill includes tariff measures, and to provide a vehicle for it to pass in the Senate.
“We want to get it done, yeah. Now, I think it’s probably a revenue measure, most likely originates in the House,” Thune told reporters on Wednesday. “But as long as the White House is good with doing it, as you know, we’ve been ready to go on that for a long time. So hopefully the answer is yes, but we have a lot of stuff on the calendar.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) office referred questions on the Russia sanctions legislation to committees with jurisdiction, but some lawmakers are calling for a vote on the floor immediately.
“The House must immediately vote on the sanctions bill,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), posted on X Wednesday afternoon.