The US-backed 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, which became public last week, was taken from a document prepared by Russia and presented to the Donald Trump administration in October, according to three sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The Russians shared the document outlining Moscow's terms for ending the war with senior US officials in mid-October, after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, the sources said.
The document, an informal communication known in diplomatic parlance as an "non-paper", contained language that the Russian government had previously proposed at the negotiating table, including concessions that Ukraine had rejected, including the cession of a significant portion of its territory to the east.
This is the first confirmation that the document, whose existence was first reported by Reuters in October, is the basis for the 28-point peace plan.
The U.S. State Department, the Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Washington did not respond to requests for comment, the agency noted.
The White House did not directly comment on the informal document, but cited Trump's comments as saying he was optimistic about the progress of the peace plan.
"In hopes of finalizing this peace plan, I have directed my special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to meet with President Putin in Moscow, while Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will meet with the Ukrainians," Trump wrote.
It is unclear why or how the Trump administration came to rely on the Russian document to shape its own peace plan, Reuters commented.