Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), said Friday that Kyiv has made no decisions on the US draft proposal.
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Kyiv received the draft from the US on Thursday, with media reports suggesting the plan includes 28 points based on talks between the US and Russia, conducted without Kyiv’s participation.
While some media reports suggest that Kyiv has demanded changes to some clauses, such as dropping the requirement for aid audits, Umerov denied the reports in his Friday update.
Umerov added that the Ukrainian teams are studying the draft.
“Today, this work continues in Kyiv at a technical level between the teams. We are carefully studying all the proposals of our partners, expecting the same correct attitude towards the Ukrainian position,” he wrote.
“Publications in the media about the alleged ‘approval’ or ‘removal of points’ have nothing to do with reality. These are examples of unverified information that arose outside the context of the consultations,” he added.
Zelensky’s office wrote that the parties “agreed to work on the points of the plan in such a way that it would bring about a dignified end to the war” upon confirming receipt of the draft.
Umerov also added that he made no decisions on the draft despite his presence in the US, saying it was not his decision to make and he was merely facilitating the technical talks as the head of the NSDC.
“During my trip to the United States, my task was technical – organizing meetings and preparing for the dialogue. I did not provide any assessments or, even less, approvals of any points,” he wrote.
“This is not within my authority and does not comply with the procedure.”
While both US and Ukrainian officials acknowledge the existence of the draft deal, the draft’s details remain murky, with rumors circulating that it also includes clauses ranging from “rental fees” for the Donbas region to reconstruction revenues for the US.
The draft also appears to be driven by Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s Russian envoy. Witkoff’s team seems to be advancing a competing diplomatic approach within the White House that departs from the traditional foreign-policy establishment, relying instead on the former real-estate mogul’s own informal, fast-moving backchannel.