Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and special envoy of the Russian president for economic cooperation with foreign countries, talks with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkov during talks in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 11, 2025.
Vyacheslav Prokofiev | via Reuters
U.S. officials and lawmakers are increasingly concerned about Trump administration representatives meeting last month with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who is under U.S. sanctions, to draft a plan to end the war in Ukraine, multiple sources said.
The meeting took place in Miami at the end of October and was attended by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Dmitriev, who heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), one of Russia’s largest sovereign wealth funds.
Mr. Dmitriev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has played a leading role in talks with the United States about the war and has met with Mr. Witkov several times this year. A senior U.S. official told Reuters that the Trump administration had granted him a special exemption to allow him to enter the country.
Dmitriev and his fund were placed on the US government’s blacklist in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions effectively prohibit U.S. citizens and companies from doing business with them.
According to two people familiar with the situation, the talks resulted in a 28-point plan to end the war. The plan, published by Axios earlier this week, came as a surprise to U.S. officials across the administration and caused confusion at embassies across Washington and in European capitals.
It has also sparked criticism from Ukraine and its allies, who say it appears heavily tilted toward Russia’s interests, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed on Friday that he would not betray Ukraine’s interests.
The document calls for significant concessions from Ukraine and appears to go against the Trump administration’s recent tougher stance toward Russia, including sanctions on the energy sector.
It is unclear whether Mr. Dmitriev attended the Miami meeting with specific Russian demands and whether they were incorporated into the peace plan.
Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, also traveled to Miami earlier this week to discuss the plan with Witkov, two people familiar with the talks said.
Mr. Witkov informed Mr. Umerov of the plan during his visit, and the United States passed it to Ukraine through the Turkish government on Wednesday before presenting it in person in Kiev on Thursday, one of the people familiar with the situation said.
Umerov described his role as “technical” and denied substantively discussing the plans with U.S. officials.
Mr. Dmitriev and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said in a statement that any peace plan “must provide security and deterrence for Ukraine, Europe and Russia” and provide economic incentives for both Ukraine and Russia.
“This plan was created to reflect the reality of the situation and find the best win-win scenario where both sides get more than they deserve,” she said.
President Trump said Friday that he expected Zelensky to sign the plan by the Thanksgiving holiday. According to Reuters, the United States has warned Ukraine that military aid may be cut if it does not sign the deal.
President Zelenskyy announced in his speech on Friday evening that he would consult with Ukraine’s partners on steps to end the war.
“Our representatives know exactly how to protect Ukraine’s national interests and what needs to be done to prevent a third invasion by Russia that would be a further blow to Ukraine,” he said.
In separate remarks Saturday, Trump said his proposal was not the final one, suggesting there could be room for tweaks as Ukraine and European allies stressed the plan could serve as a basis for negotiations but would require significant changes.
Some officials were caught off guard.
Two people familiar with the plan said many senior officials at the State Department and the National Security Council were not briefed. Keith Kellogg, special envoy to Ukraine who worked with Ukraine in negotiations to end the war and is scheduled to resign in January, was also removed from talks led by Witkov and Dmitriev, the sources said.
A senior U.S. official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio knew about the 28-point plan in advance, but declined to say when he was briefed on it.
“Secretary Rubio has been closely involved in the entire process of developing a plan to end the war in Ukraine. Any suggestion otherwise is completely false. That has included multiple conversations with both sides of the conflict to facilitate exchanges to establish a lasting peace,” State Department chief spokesman Tommy Piggott said in a statement.
Some U.S. officials and others interviewed by Reuters disputed that characterization, with one official saying the plan included things the secretary of state had previously rejected.
The situation has raised concerns within the administration and on Capitol Hill that Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner were bypassing the interagency process and that their discussions with Mr. Dmitriev led to plans favorable to Russian interests.
These include demands that Russia has previously made, including giving up some of the eastern territory still controlled by Ukraine, recognizing Crimea as Russian territory, and pledging not to join NATO.
“There are real problems with this so-called ‘peace plan,’ and I am very skeptical that peace will be achieved,” said Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Ukraine should not be forced to surrender territory to Vladimir Putin, one of the world’s most flagrant war criminals.”
Concerns about Dmitriev
The administration’s discussions with Mr. Dmitriev have also raised concerns among some in the intelligence community, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
Dmitriev has used his role at RDIF to make inroads with various Western governments and companies, even amidst U.S. sanctions.
The CIA declined to comment on concerns within the intelligence community about Dmitriev.
During the first Trump administration, Dmitriev established contacts with the president’s team to reset relations between Washington and Moscow.
A Justice Department report released in 2019 by special counsel Robert Mueller said Mr. Dmitriev discussed U.S.-Russian relations in a 2017 meeting with Erik Prince, the former CEO of Blackwater and an ally of Mr. Trump. Mueller’s team was investigating the Trump team’s ties to Russia.
In a separate meeting with friends of Kushner, Dmitriev drafted a reconciliation plan to strengthen ties between the United States and Russia, according to the report.
The Mueller team said in its report that it has not been proven that the Trump campaign collaborated with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
Mr. Dmitriev also worked directly with Mr. Kushner during his first administration. During the pandemic, Mr. Dmitriev coordinated with Mr. Kushner on the delivery of ventilators to the United States, a senior U.S. official said. The ventilators were provided by RDIF, raising concerns among Treasury officials that the U.S. may be violating its own sanctions.
In recent years, Mr. Dmitriev has appeared on various U.S. television stations and at events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos to promote stronger trade ties between the United States and Russia.
He pushed a similar message at a meeting in Miami, according to a public reading of the meeting.
His visit also included a meeting with U.S. Rep. Anna Luna, Republican of Florida. During the meeting, Mr. Dmitriev and Mr. Luna spoke about strengthening trade relations between the United States and Russia. Rep. Luna’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The meeting between the two was set up earlier this month amid statements by Luna that he had received Russia’s JFK files.
A video by RIA, one of Russia’s state news agencies, shows Luna receiving a box of chocolates with Putin’s face engraved on the front.
The image appears to show Luna and Dmitriev in a conference room at the Faena Hotel in Miami.
Faena Hotel is owned by Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, according to the company’s website. Mr. Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born dual citizen of the United States and United Kingdom, initially made his money by partnering with Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire who was sanctioned by the United States for his ties to President Vladimir Putin.
Blavatnik has completely divested all of his Russian assets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, his spokesperson said.
Mr. Witkoff’s company, Witkoff Group, does business with Blavatnik, including in Miami.
