Disarray over leaked 'peace plan' will suit Putin just fine

The Kremlin has barely lifted a finger in recent days. It hasn't needed to.

- Pjotr Sauer

The 28-point US-Russia peace proposal, leaked to the media last week, has thrown Washington, Kyiv and European capitals into disarray, creating precisely the conditions Vladimir Putin has long sought: a negotiating table sharply tilted in the Russian president's favour, with Ukraine cornered into weighing terms it cannot accept and the threat of losing its most important ally hanging over its head.

Since Donald Trump's return to power, both Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, have worked relentlessly to convince the US they are not the side resisting peace. For his part, the US president has oscillated wildly - blasting one side or the other with angry posts and threats.

After the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, which by most accounts left the US president dissatisfied, he briefly appeared to side more openly with Kyiv. Significant US sanctions on Russian oil followed.

But last week's peace plan largely drafted in Florida by the US property developer Steve Witkoff and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund - has upended that dynamic.

Trump's role in the plan remains unclear, but initially at least he embraced it. Last Sunday, he returned to portraying Ukraine as the obstacle to ending the war.