A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kirill Dmitriev has taken a leading role in talks with the U.S. about the Ukraine war and has met with special envoy Steve Witkoff several times this year.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, has warned the proposal to end the war with Russia could come with consequences.

From the front-line city of Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk, to Zaporizhzhia in the south, there is little doubt that Russia is making advances. But, battlefield monitors suggest the picture is not quite so bleak for Ukraine as Trump and Putin suggest.

The United States and Ukraine pressed on with talks in Switzerland on Monday to come up with a mutually acceptable peace plan, after agreeing to modify a U.S. proposal that Kyiv and its European allies saw as a Kremlin wish list.

Ukrainian, American and European officials gathered in Geneva on Nov. 23 to discuss a draft plan presented by Washington to end the war in Ukraine.

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone on Monday to discuss trade, Taiwan and Ukraine, according to the White House and Chinese officials.

The U.S. 28-point proposal for ending the war between Russia and Ukraine was really a plan for 'capitulation' to the Kremlin, says Arseniy Yatsenyuk, former prime minister of Ukraine. But while the plan itself was a 'complete disaster' that created chaos for officials in Ukraine and Europe,