A SECRET Peace Deal Just LEAKED — And It’s Explosive
By Professor Gerdes Explains 🇺🇦
Summary
## Key takeaways - **Leaked US-Russia Peace Plan**: The Trump administration is secretly drafting a 28-point plan with Russia to end the Ukraine war, inspired by Trump's Gaza deal, covering peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, European security, and future US-Russia relations, but it's based entirely on Russian talking points without Ukrainian input. [00:41], [01:03] - **Plan Demands Ukraine Capitulation**: The proposal requires Ukraine to cut its army in half, give up certain weapons and the Donbas region, recognize Russian as an official state language, and grant official status to the Russian Orthodox Church, amounting to maximalist Russian demands that Ukraine views as capitulation. [05:08], [06:13] - **Zelenskyy Rejects Exclusion**: Zelenskyy canceled the meeting with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff in Turkey because the peace plan was developed without Ukraine's involvement, violating the principle of 'nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,' and Witkoff postponed the trip amid clear Ukrainian disinterest. [02:12], [09:21] - **Russian Leak for Propaganda**: The Russians deliberately leaked the plan via official Kirill Dmitri to Axios to pressure Ukraine and the US, allowing them to portray Ukraine as unwilling to negotiate while advancing their battlefield gains without needing to conquer territory on the ground. [05:46], [03:42] - **Church as Wedge Against Ukraine**: Russia is using the Russian Orthodox Church to create divisions by claiming Ukraine imprisons Orthodox Christians for spying and KGB activities, with US figures like Representative Luna echoing these narratives to appeal to Trump's concerns about Christian persecution, though it's not about the church name but actual subversive actions. [06:48], [07:49] - **Ukraine Builds Alliances Amid Pressure**: Zelenskyy met with Turkey's Erdogan to strengthen defense cooperation, joint production, and Black Sea security, with Turkey reaffirming commitment to Ukraine's territorial integrity, while Ukraine and Poland form a joint group to counter Russian sabotage efforts across Europe. [09:43], [10:40]
Topics Covered
- US-Russia peace plan excludes Ukraine entirely?
- Russian church becomes wedge against US-Ukraine alliance?
- Ukraine's corruption scandal signals government collapse?
- Russia's sabotage escalates hybrid war in Europe?
Full Transcript
A leaked peace plan just got out and it doesn't look like anything's going to come of it, but I'm going to tell you what's in it. So, it is Wednesday, November 19th, 2025. And I don't know that this is going to get any traction.
The White House is reportedly close to announcing a major peace deal proposal with Russia that could end the war in Ukraine.
Well, we've heard that before.
A senior official tells Politico that a framework could be agreed to all sides by the month's end, possibly even as soon as this week. It's a non-starter because it's all Russian talking points and the Ukrainians weren't really invited to the party. So, here's the article in Axios scoop.
US secretly drafting new plan to end the Ukraine war.
The Trump administration has been secretly working in consultation with Russia to draft a new plan to end the war in Ukraine. US and Russian officials tell Axios.
Okay, what could go wrong there, right?
The 28 point plan, US plan is inspired by President Trump's successful push for a deal in Gaza.
Okay, a top Russian official told Axios he's optimistic about the plan.
Well, of course they're optimistic about the plan because it's the Russian plan.
It's not yet clear how Ukraine and its European backers will feel about it.
Well, it's clear now. I'll tell you all about that in a moment. The plan's 28 points fall into four general buckets.
Sources tell Axios peace in Ukraine, security guarantees, security in Europe, and the future US relations with Russia and Ukraine.
Trump's envoy, Steve Whitoff, is leading the drafting of the plan has been discussed extensively with the Russian envoy Krill Dmitri.
Of course, it was because it's their plan that Wikoff is just serving up.
Demetri told Axios in an interview on Monday that he spent three days huddled with Witoff and other members of Trump's team when Demetri visited Miami from October 24th to 26.
Demetri uh expressed optimism about the deal's chances of success because unlike past efforts, quote, "We feel the Russian position is really being heard, but only the Russian position is really being heard here.
So, it's going to be a non-starter.
" Whitov was expected to meet Ukrainian President Zalinski on Wednesday in Turkey, but postponed his trip. Now, I don't know if he postponed it or if it was just that Zalinsky was like, "We're not meeting.
" But from this point, it looks like that Witoff postponed his trip. We know the Americans are working on something, a Ukrainian official said.
DemetriVev told Axios that the basic idea was to take the principles Trump and Russian Vladimir President Vladimir Putin agreed to in Alaska in August and produce a proposal to address the Ukrainian conflict but also how to restore US-Russia ties and address Russia's security concerns.
It's actually a much broader framework.
So they they really do want to expand that aperture so that they can talk about how we can do business after the war because that's a siren song to Trump. The aim is to produce a written document along those lines before Trump and Putin next meet.
Plans for a Budapest summit between the leaders remain on hold for now.
Now the friction point said this effort was entirely unrelated to the UK le push to draft a Gaza style peace plan for Ukraine which he said had no chance of success because it disregards Russians Russia's positions.
Well, this has as much chance of Ukraine accepting it as the other one has of Russia accepting it.
though nothing's going to happen.
But it looks like they're playing along and working toward peace. The US side was now in the process of explaining the benefits explaining the benefits of the current approach to the Ukrainians and the Europeans.
Look how awesome this deal is.
It's happening within the background of Russia's definitely having additional successes on the battlefield.
Moscow is le Moscow's leverage is growing.
I talked about this last week when we were talking about cross.
They said, "Watch as as they get battlefield victories or they look like they're beating them from the air or, you know, pounding them at night like what just happened yesterday or last night, night overnight.
Uh it looks like Russia's uh prevailing and as that happens, they'll come back out and do more diplomatic things because if they can get it by political negotiation, they don't have to take it on the ground." The official said that the White House thinks that there's a real chance of getting the Ukrainians and Europeans on board.
There's not a snowballs chance in a very very hot place of that happening.
We think the timing is good for this plan now, but both parties need to be practical and realistic. The US official said, um, if they're if both sides are being practical, then saying that this plan was going to have any legs at all is just it doesn't make sense.
This is Christopher Miller from FT's chief correspondent in Kev new. I can confirm a hasty US-Russia proposal being pushed to Ukrainians through Demitrif Witkoff to Umearov.
It would amount to Ukraine's capitulation.
It's maximalist demands.
That's what it amounts to. So, it'll go nowhere.
They'll float it and then they'll try to say that Ukraine just doesn't want to play ball.
The Ukrainian army should be cut in half.
Wait a minute. Shouldn't the Russian army be cut in half? They're the aggressors after all.
Ukraine didn't go into their into into Russian territory to start the war.
give up certain weapons.
They tried that before. Give up Donbos. That is a non-starter.
And Zalinsky is displeased.
Okay. So, the the statement, the concept, the the philosophy or principle should be nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.
And they're violating that.
Looks like Steve Whit tweeted what was meant to be a DM, saying that the content for this much discussed Axio story must have come from K, that's Krill Dmitri, who was quoted in the story.
But it seems the Russian side is leaking this for a reason that they want this out.
So here's Witoff uh saying this rather than sending it as a direct message as a reply to Barack Ravid.
Um yeah, so but the Russians want it out and they're going to they're going going to use this for propaganda purposes.
If the US is trying to shift the blame onto Ukraine and give Trump an easy way out, Whitov sure is doing his part. it.
If his job is really to build a framework for a peace deal, he should be removed as soon as possible. He's doing an absolutely terrible job. If your your goal is to actually get to a real peace deal, the plan would even demand that Russia be recognized or Russian be recognized as an official state language in Ukraine and that the local branch of the Russian Orthodox Church receive official status.
Okay, I just talked about this in my last video.
This video didn't get a whole lot of traction, but it's really important to understanding the nuances of what what's happening.
Go back to watch that video next.
What's going on here? Why are the Russian priests meeting in the White House?
They're actually This is Representative Luna.
And speaking of Representative Luna, who just posted this after I put that video out, it is both alarming and disappointing that Representative Joe Wilson, who I also talked about, instead of responding to a request for help on behalf of imprisoned Russian Orthodox members currently being held in Ukraine, chose to turn this into a press campaign against them, like she's just buying this hook, line, and sinker.
This is they're speaking a language that Trump will hear and say, "Oh, they're abusing Christians.
Is that it?" I diffused that totally in that last video.
The Mr. Wilson, who is currently a vocal advocate for Ukraine, even wearing Ukrainian flag nearly every day, should remember that his first priority is to his home country. The Ukrainian flag that he wears every day is crossed with an American flag in solidarity.
He gave me one of those. His second should be ensuring that American taxpayer dollars are not used to, listen to this, to imprison Orthodox Christians simply because the word Russia appears in their church name.
That's not it at all.
It's not because they're the word Russia appears in their church name.
It's because of spying activities and other things.
And there's not US tax dollars used to imprison those Orthodox Christians who are doing KGB work.
So on many regards, this is all all off.
But again, please go back and watch that video next.
In December, she Luna says she'll be hosting numerous members of the Orthodox Church from across the country alongside several members of Congress.
Oh boy. Okay, so that's a new line of effort for the Russians to use the church as a wedge between the United States and Ukraine. Don't fall for it.
Okay. Zalinsky now is also in a hot spot because of the corruption scandal around one of his friends who and the minister of justice.
Zalinsky has announced a new round of high level diplomacy with the critical negotiations uh November 19th in Turkey where Trump's special envoy WhitF was also expected to join.
So between the battlefield and the corruption scandal, this was a very bad time for that. But he goes to Turkey and as he's as he's going to Turkey, he's going to meet well through the theoretically with Wickoff, but Wickoff pulls out.
And then so the United States and Russia discuss a new prisoner swap.
This was supposed to be what was going on that they were going to talk about US citizens that remained in Russian prisons and maybe a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia, but it was all to curry favor. And these two were just way too chummy. and it's it's just not going to work out well. Okay.
Peskov said that he wouldn't be going to tomorrow's talks.
That's yesterday for today's talks.
Um the meeting between Zalinsky and Witoff was canled because it became clear that Zalinsky was not interested in discussing US president's peace plan that was made about Ukraine without Ukraine.
Uh so nothing really happened there.
Zalinsky arrived in Turkey for the peace talks and then so he met with Erdogan said he had a very productive and substantive meeting with the president of Turkey.
We discussed the further defense cooperation, joint uh production projects, coordination.
We also address the situation diplomatically.
We share the same view with Turkey.
Peace and security must be guaranteed.
Turkey's active involvement in the coalition of the willing, especially its naval component is important.
Everyone understands the significance of security in the Black Sea and and such security can only be insured together with Turkey.
Well, Turkey sits on Constantinople which is going to well uh You can't go back to Constantinople, Kenya.
Um, and if you know what that reference, put it in the comment below.
You'll Turkey sits right on the entrance to the Black Sea. Okay. Uh, Anchora.
Uh, so Zalinski is there and he's doing this.
He's, uh, honoring the memory of Mustafa Archerk, the first president of modern Turkey.
Uh, and so this is what Zalinsky spent the day doing.
And then he was meeting with um, President Erdogan.
Turkey reaffirmed its commitment to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.
Let's listen to Erdogan for just a moment.
Distinguished members of the press, during our talks today with my dear friend Zalinski, we also discussed bilateral issues.
We reaffirmed our commitment to the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine, our strategic partner.
Well, that's that's a lot further than this US peace deal was going to go. uh where they're thinking about chopping it up and giving away stuff that Russia couldn't even conquer.
Okay. Zullinsky lands on Turkey hoping hoping to revive stalled peace talks just as this corruption probe and mixed signals over a planned US meeting threatened to overshadow the visit.
And here we have uh this man circled.
This is Zalinsk's chief uh and he seems like he might not be long for being involved.
I'll talk about that in a moment.
A corruption investigation in Ukraine has reached higher up and closer to President Zalinsky than at any other time during his tenure. Good friend of his was involved in this and it looks really bad.
Although it doesn't look like Zalinsky was involved, it looks really bad.
Ukraine's parliament just dismissed justice minister with 323 MPs voting in favor, none against, 15 abstained.
I think that's abstained.
If if I'm wrong, correct me.
Uh watching the council session, there's lots of populism.
Oh, by the way, this is Sir Cern Serenko.
I Whatever he says, I I just take his gospel truth.
This guy has raised um hundreds of thousands of drones and he's plugged in like no one. Um watching the council session, lots of populism, even more hypocrisy, devils from OPZ, uh political corpses, and other wondrous beasts are speaking. But their speech speeches aren't what's heard the loudest.
What's heard loudest is there's silence about the war, about the front, about the soldiers. No one notices the crisis that's unfolded in the military.
Like they they need to keep their eye on the main thing, but the minority parties are trying to, you know, fight back at Zalinsk's party, which is the majority party.
Kira Rudik is also in a minority party.
She says, "Today we block the rostrom in the parliament. Trust in this government is simply gone. Nearly 50 MPs have already signed fire to it.
Ukraine needs a new government of national unity to keep a country from falling off the edge.
She, you know, I get it.
She's been out of power or out of majority power for the last 5 years. And but she I think she's right. I think now I'm not Ukrainian, so if I'm speaking from the high seats, please forgive me.
Tell me what you think about this.
During World War II, Churchill formed a party of na a government of national unity.
And I think this kind of thing might go a long way to uh work together between the various parties if they could form some kind of equivalent coalition. But at any rate, we as we're talking about Mindic um P uh member of parliament Venice Slovski from Zalen Zalinsky, servant of the people party has publicly called for Yurmax resignation.
That's who I was talking about earlier. Uh he confirmed widespread discussion within the faction about removing the head of the president's office.
Uh especially after the allegations tied to mind tapes.
Yermac's departure could ease pressure on the government. Um there's some feeling that maybe Yurmach is actually corrupt and he's not wellliked in the United States and so that could be something that releases some pressure.
Grill Dmitri from Russia is saying Zalinsk's team is in full panic mode.
fearing corruption allegations could ignite another color revolution.
I don't think that's going to happen, but you know, they're going to put frame it the way that they want to frame it.
They don't know what's in the what's in the 80% remaining of recorded uh conversations still unreleased by anti-corruption bodies combined with Russian battlefield gains.
It's a perfect storm. Well, that's exactly I'm showing you this because this is exactly what Russia wants to project.
So, okay, there we are. Meanwhile, David Petraeus is saying, "Look, Russia has it bad, too.
It's also tough on Russia's side.
Ukraine has been using their long-range munitions to damage or destroy 25% of Russian refinery.
It's not like the Russians have it in the bag.
So, don't worry about that." Okay.
Meanwhile, what are the Russians doing?
Poland is accusing Russia of tea and shuts down the last Russian consulate in the country.
Now, there's only the one embassy in Warsaw. All the others have been closed.
And this is because as you know uh Russians used Ukrainian nationals to sabotage Polish tracks.
So it's really Russia behind that whole thing even though uh those were citizens of Ukraine that were sympathetic to Russia and doing Russia's dirty work.
Ukraine and Poland will form a joint group to counter Russia's sabotage efforts.
Zullinsky announced after talks with Polish Prime Minister Tusk.
He noted that Telegram was used to coordinate subversive activity and disinformation, stressing all evidence points to Russia. Ukraine is ready to share intel and work closely with Poland across all levels. And it's not just in Poland.
Listen to this. This is the Secretary of Defense from Great Britain talking about what just happened there.
As I speak, a Russian spy ship, the Yantar, is on the edge of UK waters north of Scotland, having entered the UK's wider waters over the last few weeks.
This is a vessel designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables.
We deployed a Royal Navy frigot and RAFP8 planes to monitor and track this vessel's every move during which the Yantar directed lasers at our pilots.
That Russian action is deeply dangerous.
>> Yeah. So, I mean the Russians are just provoking and provoking and Yeah.
Meanwhile, in the US, uh, Secretary Dan Dro Dis Driscoll, excuse me, and General Randy George are in Kev, the highest level visit by the Trump Pentagon so far.
They're meeting Ukrainian leaders to discuss stal peace efforts and expand text sharing, especially on drones.
So, okay, I mean, that's a step forward, but the US is going to be out of the loop here for a little while. And this is another reason why I don't have high hopes for this peace plan that they're trying to reinvigorate.
Um because they're focused on Venezuela and Epstein and that sort of thing. EB uh I'll talk about Epstein in a moment.
Venezuela anything to avoid war. New York Times reports that Maduro offered to resign but on his own terms. Maduro allegedly told US officials he was willing to step down but only after a couple of years.
Okay. Well, there's a aircraft carrier parked in the in the Caribbean right now, and President Trump has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
So, I think his time is up.
Um, it would be it would be great for Trump politically if he would just leave and flee and go to Moscow or Cuba or wherever he was going to go. Uh, I don't know if that's going to happen, but that's where we are. And then the Epstein files, I talked about it yesterday.
I did a video about what happened as the vote was being taken.
It was 300 and um what whatever it was only one voted against it. It was like almost unanimous in the House and then later on the evening the Senate unanimously unanimously agreed to approve the Epstein files.
What does this mean?
It means they will be released.
Trump cannot do anything about that.
Uh so they'll be released whether he wants him to or not. As s I mean that's the superest majority I've ever seen.
um that wasn't about like happy birthday to Emma Schwarz uh on her 100th birthday or something something along those lines.
Okay. So, the Senate is going to send the Epstein files to Bill uh build to Trump for his signature and even if he doesn't sign it, it will become law because you have a supermajority.
So, that's where the United States government is.
Okay. Last thing I'll leave you with is this. Darth Putin, the US plan is to ensure peace by making sure Ukraine cannot defend itself when we attack again. Yep, that's what it amounts to.
All right, my friends.
Thank you for bearing with me throughout this.
Thank you for the time, the likes, the shares, and the subscribes.
Put your comments below. I try to read as many as I can.
And thank you for being the kind of person who cares about Ukraine.
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