US Treasury chief reportedly meets Russian counterpart to push Trump peace plan — without Ukraine's knowledge, source says
on Google
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is meeting Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to discuss a Washington-backed 28-point peace plan for Ukraine, Fox Business reported on Aug. 31.
The two reportedly met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Asheville, North Carolina, marking the first in-person attendance by the Russian finance minister since the outbreak of Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Their meeting to discuss peace efforts in Ukraine had not been announced in advance, and a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that Kyiv does not "know anything about this meeting."
The news comes as the U.S. seeks to revive its push for a peace deal in Ukraine, even as the year-and-a-half-long effort has failed to achieve a breakthrough amid Moscow's territorial demands and its refusal of a ceasefire.
An original version of the 28-point peace plan, brokered by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian Envoy Kirill Dmitriev and first published last November, imposed punishing demands on Ukraine and was widely seen as a demand for Kyiv to surrender.
The plan was later revised and reduced to 20 points in a series of talks between Ukrainian and Western officials, but the changes were rejected by the Kremlin, and the negotiations reached a deadlock.
In recent weeks, there has been a renewed diplomatic effort, as President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier in August that Ukraine, the U.S., and European partners drafted a one-page plan to end the war.
That plan was said to include a ceasefire and the creation of a "free economic zone" in Donbas — Ukraine's partially occupied eastern region comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Moscow demands that Ukraine cede the entire region as part of peace talks.
It remains unclear whether the peace plan Bessent discussed is the same as the one mentioned by Zelensky, and the Kremlin has already rejected both the ceasefire and a buffer zone in Donbas.
This was not the first unexpected high-level meeting between U.S. and Russian officials this month. On Aug. 25, CIA Director John Ratcliffe made his first known visit to Moscow, though the reasons for the trip were not disclosed.
