So, now we have the details of the 28-point so-called 'peace plan' which Ukrainian Parliamentarian Goncharenko has provided claiming it to be a translation from the original.
The text - written as a putative legal treaty - will strike any experienced reader as an amateur production, hinging, in several parts, on 'subsequent discussions' and on 'expectations'.
That is to say, much is left ambiguous, vague nor firmly nailed down. Such a plan would, of course, be - in the round - unacceptable to Moscow (although they may not disavow it outright). Even so, the plan has aroused fury and pushback in Europe. The Economist (reflecting the Establishment view) calls the paper "a terrible American-Russian proposal ... which checks off many of [Russia's] maximalist demands and adds a few more".
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The Europeans and Britain want Russian capitulation, pure and simple.
The point here, which Moscow makes clear, is that Kirill Dmitriev - Steve Witkoff's interlocutor in the drafting - does not represent President Putin, nor Russia. He has no official mandate whatsoever.
Putin spokesman Dmitri Peskov curtly states:
"There are no formal consultations between Russia and the U.S. on the settlement in Ukraine; but contacts exist. Maria Zakharova stated that "the Russian Foreign Ministry has received zero official information from the U.S. about any alleged 'agreements' on Ukraine that the media is enthusiastically circulating"".
"Moscow's position is that Russia is open to dialogue only within the 'boundaries of its stated principles', and the U.S. has not, as of yet, offered anything official that could serve as a starting point".
So what is going on? Two politically inexperienced 'non-envoys' have had conversations, and out of these talks have stitched together some apparently speculative proposals. It is not even clear whether Dmitriev had a nod of assent for his talks with Witkoff in the U.S. in October, or whether he was acting on his own initiative. Russia's Foreign Ministry is disavowing any knowledge of the content of these extensive discussions. It would be extraordinary if Dmitriev was keeping nobody in Moscow in the loop.
In any event, President Putin has sent his own riposte to the flood of stories circulating in the western media (based on leaks to Axios apparently deriving from Dmitriev):
Dressed in military uniform, Putin visited the command post of Battlegroup West on the front line, where he simply stated that the Russian people "expect and need" results from the Special Military Operation (SMO): "The unconditional attainment of the goals of the SMO is the main objective for Russia", he said.
Putin's response to the U.S. therefore is clear.
It looks then as though this discussion document written from the American perspective was conceived as a classic 'bait and switch' exercise. Secretary Rubio has repeatedly said that he doesn't know "whether Russia is serious about peace - or not":
"We're testing to see if the Russians are interested in peace. Their actions - not their words, their actions - will determine whether they're serious or not, and we intend to find that out sooner rather than later ... There are some promising signs; there are some troubling signs".
So, the proposals likely have been a 'set up' to test Russia. For example, they 'test' Russia in multiple areas:
"It is expected ... that NATO will not expand further, based on dialogue between Russia and NATO, but mediated by the U.S.; Ukraine will receive 'reliable security guarantees' [undefined]; the size of Ukraine's armed forces will be 'limited' [sic] to only 600,000 men; the U.S. will be compensated for these guarantees; should Russia invade Ukraine, [then] in addition to a decisive coordinated military response, all global sanctions will be reinstated, recognition of new territories and all other benefits will be revoked; the U.S. will cooperate with Ukraine on joint reconstruction ... and operation of Ukraine's gas infrastructure, including pipelines and storage facilities".