Putin envoy Dmitriev: Peace plan seeks to end Ukraine losses of land, lives

(Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said on Friday the U.S. plan for a settlement of the war in Ukraine was aimed at preventing more Ukrainian deaths and loss of territory.

Several sources told Reuters and other media outlets that the plan to end the four-year-old war was the result of back-channel conversations between Dmitriev and Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy.

“Because of warmongers’ propaganda, many people miss that Trump’s Peace Plan is designed to save Ukraine from losing even more land and lives,” Dmitriev wrote in English on the X social media platform on Friday.

“Watch closely attackers of the Peace Plan — and how they benefit from an endless war.”

Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, has made several trips to the United States to solidify relations with Trump administration officials.

The plan, presented to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday, entails major Ukrainian concessions including ceding large swathes of territory and limiting the size of its military.

Zelenskiy said on Friday that the plan placed Ukraine at risk of losing its dignity and freedom — or Washington’s backing.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, writing on X on Friday, said he had a “timely and meaningful collective call” on the peace proposals with diplomats, including his counterparts from France, Britain, Poland and Finland.

“I shared the results of President Zelenskiy’s recent contacts and outlined the logic of our further steps,” Sybiha wrote. “We discussed in detail the elements of peace proposals presented by the United States and our joint work to pave a doable path to a just peace.”

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)