Trump's new plan. Axios sources explain why Zelenskyy and Witkoff did not meet

Meeting of the US leader's special envoy Steve Witkoff with the president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was postponed, among other things, due to the latter's lack of interest in discussing a new peace plan by Donald Trump, Axios reports, citing an unnamed US official. The media provides other details of the negotiations, citing anonymous sources in the US and Ukraine.

According to an informed American official, Trump's new 28-point plan includes a provision that Russia will gain full control over Donetsk and Luhansk in exchange for US security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe against Russian aggression in the future.

One of Axios' interlocutors said that Zelenskyy had authorized the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov to negotiate with Witkoff, and that many of his comments were included in the text of the American president's plan.

The source claims that many agreements were reached during the talks with Umerov.

An unnamed Ukrainian official confirmed that Zelenskyy had sent the NSDC secretary to be informed of the US plan. However, he noted that this was done verbally and that Umerov had not received a written proposal from Trump's special envoy.

The official also denied that the NSDC secretary had agreed to the terms of the plan during the meeting and noted that Ukraine objected to many of the points.

As Axios points out, before meeting with Umerov, Witkoff had extensive discussions about the plan with the Russian dictator's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

On Wednesday, November 19, Witkoff planned to visit Ankara as part of Turkey's support for Trump's peace initiative and hold a trilateral meeting with Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, an unnamed US official told the media.

He said the meeting was postponed when it became clear that the Ukrainian president was backing away from the agreements allegedly reached with Umerov and was not interested in discussing Trump's plan.

Instead, Zelenskyy went to the Turkish capital with another plan developed with European partners, which Russia will never accept, the official added.

At the same time, the Ukrainian official said that the meeting was postponed because Zelenskyy asked to discuss the plan in a broader format, including European countries.

The second American official noted that the domestic corruption scandal in Ukraine was another reason for the postponement of these talks.

He also noted that Trump had authorized his special representative to try to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian president in Turkey and supported the decision to cancel the meeting with him.

"Now we are going to wait. The ball is in Zelenskyy's court," the US official said.

He also said that the Ukrainian president can come to Washington to discuss the new American plan if he wants to.

• Earlier, Axios, citing anonymous US and Russian officials, said that the Trump administration was secretly consulting with Moscow to develop a new plan to end the Russian-Ukrainian war. Dmitriev, the dictator's special envoy, said that "we feel that the Russian position is really being heard."
• Politico, speaking to White House officials, said that the United States appears to be planning to present Zelenskyy with the terms of a new peace plan as a fait accompli.
• Reuters and CNN sources say that a secret plan by Russia and the United States to end the war allegedly involves giving up the occupied territories and some weapons.