Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the United States, Kirill Dmitriev, has a knack for orchestrating communication operations. Working alongside Donald Trump’s diplomatic emissary for the Middle East and Russia, Steve Witkoff, he co-authored the 28-point agreement now being presented as the foundation of Washington’s “peace plan” for Ukraine. As a shrewd financier, Dmitriev does not lack audacity. He was the one who leaked the text to the press, a fact inadvertently revealed by an ill-fated tweet from Witkoff that was quickly deleted.

The operation was a success. In a single day, the agreement – drafted behind the backs of Ukraine and its European allies – became Trump’s new vade mecum for achieving peace in Ukraine. “The document moved from being a dubious hypothesis to a reality that now imposes itself on everyone,” explained Alexander Baunov in an analysis published on November 24 on the independent Russian website Meduza.

Published by Axios on November 20, the plan took on an official dimension when, on the same day, US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, visiting Kyiv, handed it to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and urged him to sign within a week.

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