Posting an AI image of Donald Trump with the White House behind him to dispel speculation that the ‘US-backed peace plan’ for Ukraine was in fact Russian may not be the best strategy for the Kremlin.
Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s state investment fund (RDIF), is widely seen as one of the architects behind the 28-point deal.
With no real diplomatic experience – but boasting close relationships with both Vladimir Putin and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – he positioned himself as Russia’s unofficial negotiator after relations between the two presidents turned sour earlier this year.
Since the plan was first unveiled earlier in November, there has been much skepticism about the heft of the Kremlin’s influence due to how skewed it is.
Responding to the criticism, Dmitriev shared an unhinged AI image on X – Trump in his full might, scrunching his eyebrows. In the background, the White House overshadowed by grey clouds and giant red sparkes.
At the forefront, a warning reads, ‘ Trust the plan’.
Perhaps most telling is the ‘Q+’ mark – a reference to QAnon, the far-right political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in 2017, whose supporters view Trump as a hero.
Dmitriev was reacting to a post by Marco Rubio, in which the US secretary of state criticised ‘the fake news reports claiming a rift inside the Trump administration over how to end the war in Ukraine.’
The Russian diplomat added: ‘Truth and peace will prevail.’
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This comes after multiple sources told Reuters that the plan to end the war drew from a Russian-authored paper sent to the Trump administration in October.
The Russians shared the paper, which outlined their conditions for ending the war, after a meeting between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in mid-October, the sources said.
It contained language that the Kremlin had previously put forward at the negotiating table, including concessions that Ukraine had rejected such as ceding a significant chunk of its territory in the east.
This is the first confirmation that the document was a key input in the 28-point peace plan.
Neither the US state department nor the Russian side have commented on this.
What is in the latest version of the peace plan?
Metro reported on the deal last week, drawing attention to what Ukraine has previously described as a ‘red line’ – including the withdrawal of troops from parts of the Donetsk region it still controls and cut its military might.
Since then, Trump’s initial 28-point peace plan was changed after European leaders blasted it as a capitulation to Putin’s demands.
A new 19-point peace plan emerged this week, following two days of talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Geneva that ended on Sunday.
The talks were led on Ukraine’s side byZelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak and diplomat Umerov.
In a statement, Ukraine’s presidency office did not disclose details but said the talks were ‘constructive’ and that final decisions on the refined deal would be made by the presidents of Ukraine and the US.
Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, who also attended, told The Financial Times the meeting was ‘intense’ and nearly collapsed before it started.
He said that ‘very few things are left from the original version’.
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