Vladimir Putin‘s Harvard-educated envoy Kirill Dmitriev drafted a Ukraine peace plan that was ‘literally Russian ideas typed up’ – before leaking details of the deal that sparked fury in Kyiv, a report has claimed.
Moscow businessman Dmitriev – dubbed Putin’s ‘Trump Whisperer – was apparently revealed as the source of a ‘secret’ 28-point plan with America to end the invasion of Ukraine that has been slammed by the international community.
Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump‘s own special envoy, made an apparent blunder last week by tweeting in response to a report from an Axios journalist on the plan: ‘He must have got this from K’.
Sleuths quickly began speculating that the ‘K’ in question was none other than 50-year-old Dmitriev, who experts accused of leaking the draft plan to normalise Russia’s extortionate demands.
Keir Giles, author of the Handbook of Russian Information Warfare, said: ‘They do this thing, this sort of thing as a shaping operation to establish this outcome in the minds of the Western public and the media, so that everybody else has to fight back from it.’
The deal initially pushed for Ukraine to give up vast swathes of land, as well a hard cap on the size of the country’s military, but has since been taken back to the drawing board following intense international backlash.
The US has been accused of not putting up a fight on Ukraine’s behalf, with a source close to the administration telling the Telegraph: ‘This hasn’t been a negotiation. This literally is the Russian ideas typed up’.
The report said the plan appeared to have been drafted between Dmitriev and Witkoff, with Ukraine and some parts of the Trump administration kept in the dark.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration was forced to deny claims that the plan was originally written in Russian before being hastily translated into English.
Meaghan Mobbs, the daughter of Lt Gen Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy to Ukraine who announced last week that he would be leaving his post, claimed the leaked plan had a litany of transliteration errors, as well political vocabulary and phrasing commonly used in Russia.
Dubbed the ‘Trump whisperer’ for his uncanny ability to connect with the notoriously fickle American president, Kirill Dmitriev (pictured) is accused of, in part, drafting the much-maligned deal
Rescue workers extinguish a fire at the site of a Russian drone strike on residential buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the city on November 24, 2025 in Kharkiv, Ukraine
This appeared to be backed up by insiders who said Marco Rubio, the US’ secretary of state, was asked to deliver the document to the Senate while informing them that it was ‘was not the administration’s plan’ and was ‘essentially the wish list of the Russians’.
A source told the Telegraph: ‘Marco’s mission was to sell it to the Senate. That’s where strength is. He basically coughed up the fact that it was a Russian deal and that they hadn’t negotiated anything.’
Rubio wrote on X: ‘The peace proposal was authored by the U.S. It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations
‘It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.’
Dmitriev, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, was sanctioned by the US in 2022 following the commencement of Russia’s invasion, due to his position as the CO of the multi-billion dollar Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a powerful sovereign wealth fund.
Born in Kyiv in 1975 under the Soviet Union, he was sent to New Hampshire to live with a host family at the age of 14 as one of the first exchange students to go to the US.
He was later sent to live with family friends in California, where he enrolled in a community college before transferring to the prestigious Stanford University to study economics.
He later moved to Harvard Business School to complete his MBA. Dmitriev then started working at a series of major firms, including top consulting giant McKinsey & Company and General Electric before he was named the CEO of RDIF.
Rescuers pause search-and-rescue operations at a multi-story residential building, destroyed by the Russian missile strike to observe a moment of silence for the strike victims on November 21, 2025 in Ternopil, Ukraine
A firefighter works at the site of a Russia drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine November 23, 2025
Dmitriev has denied leaking the draft, writing on X: ‘Some false articles claimed that Russia leaked the US plan to Axios. Barak Ravid can confirm that Russia did not leak the plan or its existence/details’.
But experts say that the leak of the report was intentional, and aimed to normalise Russia’s demands.
Keir Giles, author of the Handbook of Russian Information Warfare, said: ‘We shouldn’t rule out the fact that the United States has been taken by surprise by this, like everybody else. Some factions within the US administration have been blindsided by this.’
And it appeared this blindsiding has worked, with Ukraine’s allies last night making major concessions to the Kremlin in a desperate bid to end the three-year conflict.
As peace talks in Switzerland made progress, Britain and other states agreed to welcome Russia back into the G8 group of major global economies.
Russia was expelled from the international political forum following its annexation of Crimea in 2014, but the US has pushed for its return.
The agreement in principle was struck in Geneva where US, Ukrainian and European officials are discussing peace plans put forward by the warring partners and their supporters.
Consequences of the Russian drone attack on Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine on November 23, 2025
Servicemen of the 148th Separate Artillery Zhytomyr Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a Caesar self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops at a position on the front line, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine November 23, 2025
In what was regarded as a win for Ukraine, a Russian-proposed cap on the size of its armed forces was lifted from 600,000 to 800,000.
While the lifting of a cap on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces represented a breakthrough, other points are more contentious.
Vladimir Putin is adamant Ukraine should hand over the remaining territory it holds in the eastern provinces. This is a stated red line for the country and its allies, including Britain.
Ukraine also wants to retain political sovereignty, with the freedom to apply for Nato and European Union membership, rather than being forced into isolation by the Kremlin.
Last night, Rubio said the talks held between the US and Ukrainian sides had been ‘probably [the] best meeting and day we’ve had so far in this entire process’.
Rubio, who is leading the US negotiating team, added: ‘I feel very optimistic, we can get something done here. There’s still some work to be done, but we are much further ahead today at this time than we were when we began this morning and where we were a week ago for certain.’
President Zelensky also expressed some enthusiasm. Posting on X, he said: ‘There is now an understanding that the American proposals may take into account a number of elements based on the Ukrainian vision.’
Zelensky also reiterated his gratitude towards the US for providing weaponry and intelligence.
It is considered likely Russia rejoining the G8 would be subject to the Kremlin meeting commitments in other areas, including compensating Ukraine and observing a ceasefire.
