Disarray over leaked proposals is ideal scenario for Putin - and leaves Zelenskyy scrambling

The Kremlin has barely lifted a finger in recent days. It hasn’t needed to. 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 Russia's favour, with Ukraine cornered into weighing terms it cannot accept and the threat of losing its most important ally hanging over its head.

- Pjotr Sauer

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, accusing Russia of blocking peace. Major US sanctions on Russian oil followed.

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

While the exact inception of the plan - and Trump's precise role in it - remain unclear, the US president has made clear he embraces it. On Sunday, he once again returned to portraying Ukraine as the obstacle to ending the war. Trump took to his Truth Social platform to complain that Kyiv's leadership had "EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS".