U.S. officials and lawmakers are increasingly concerned about a meeting last month in which representatives of the Trump administration met with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian envoy who is under U.S. sanctions, to draft a plan to end the war in Ukraine, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reported.

The meeting took place in Miami at the end of October and included special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Dmitriev, who leads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, one of Russia’s largest sovereign wealth funds.

A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitriev has taken a leading role in talks with the U.S. about the war and has met with Witkoff several times this year. The Trump administration issued a special waiver to allow his entry, a senior U.S. official told Reuters.

Dmitriev and his fund were blacklisted by the U.S. government in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions effectively bar American citizens and companies from dealing with them.

The meeting resulted in a 28-point plan for ending the war, two people familiar with the situation said. The plan, which was made public this week by Axios, came as a surprise to U.S. officials in various corners of the administration and has stirred confusion at embassies throughout Washington and in European capitals.

It has also prompted criticism from the Ukrainians and their allies for appearing heavily tilted toward Russian interests, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowing on Friday that he would not betray Ukraine’s interests.

The document, which calls for major concessions from Ukraine, appears to run counter to the tougher stance the Trump administration has lately taken toward Moscow, including with sanctions on its energy sector.

It is unclear whether Dmitriev came to the meeting in Miami with certain Russian demands and whether those were incorporated into the peace plan, read the report.

Two people familiar with the meeting said Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, was also in Miami early this week to discuss the plan with Witkoff.

One source familiar with the situation said Witkoff told Umerov about the plan during that visit and that the United States gave the plan to Ukraine via the Turkish government on Wednesday, before directly presenting it in Kyiv on Thursday.

Umerov has described his role as “technical” and denied that he discussed the plan in substance with U.S. officials. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Witkoff, Kushner, Dmitriev and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington also did not respond to requests for comment.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that any peace plan “must offer security guarantees and deterrence for Ukraine, Europe and Russia” and offer economic incentives to both Ukraine and Russia.

“This plan was crafted to reflect the realities of the situation, and to find the best win-win scenario, where both parties gain more than they must give,” she said.

Trump said on Friday that he expected Zelenskiy to sign onto the plan by Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday. The U.S. has warned Ukraine it could curb military assistance if it does not sign, Reuters has reported.

In an address on Friday night, Zelenskiy announced talks with Ukraine’s partners on steps to end the war.

“Our representatives know how to protect Ukraine’s national interests and what exactly is needed to prevent Russia from carrying out a third invasion, another blow to Ukraine,” he said.

Trump said on Saturday the proposal was not his final offer, signaling potential room for adjustments as Ukraine and its European allies stressed that the plan could serve as a foundation for negotiations but required significant changes.

Many senior officials inside the State Department and on the National Security Council were not briefed, the two people familiar with the plan said. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg, who had been working with the Ukrainians on negotiating an end to the war and plans to step down in January, was also cut out of the talks led by Witkoff and Dmitriev, they said.

One senior U.S. official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was read in on the 28-point plan, but did not clarify when he was briefed.

“Secretary Rubio has been closely involved throughout the entire process of developing a plan to end the war in Ukraine. Any insinuation otherwise is completely false,” State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement. “That includes speaking with both sides of this conflict – many times – to facilitate the … exchange of ideas to establish a durable peace.”

Some U.S. officials and others consulted by Reuters disputed that characterization, with one official saying the plan contains material that the secretary of state has previously rejected.

The situation has sparked worries inside the administration and on Capitol Hill that Witkoff and Kushner skirted the interagency process and that the discussions with Dmitriev have resulted in a plan that favors Russian interests.

It includes demands that Russia has previously made – that Ukraine give up some of its territory in the eastern part of the country that it still controls, recognize Crimea as Russian and pledge not to join NATO.

“This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am highly skeptical it will achieve peace,” said Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Ukraine should not be forced to give up its lands to one of the world’s most flagrant war criminals in Vladimir Putin.”

Senator Mike Rounds, a Republican, told reporters at a conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saturday that Rubio had called him and other senators and suggested that the plan was delivered by Russia to the U.S. and sent to Ukraine. “It is not our recommendation, it is not our plan,” Rounds said.

But Rubio later posted on social media that the proposal was authored by Washington. “It is based on input from the Russian side,” Rubio wrote on X. “But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”

The administration’s discussions with Dmitriev have also worried some inside the intelligence community, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said.

Dmitriev has previously used his role at RDIF, the sovereign wealth fund, to make inroads with various Western governments and businesses, even amid American sanctions.

The CIA declined to comment about concerns within the intelligence community about Dmitriev.

During the first Trump administration, Dmitriev established contacts with the president’s team to reset relations between Washington and Moscow.

In a 2017 meeting with Erik Prince, the former CEO of Blackwater and a Trump ally, Dmitriev discussed U.S.-Russia relations, according to a Department of Justice report published by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in 2019. Mueller’s team was investigating ties between the Trump team and Russia, Reuters reported.

The meeting, which took place in the Seychelles, was one of the initial points of contact between Russia and the U.S. after Trump took office.

Prince did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a separate meeting with a friend of Kushner’s, Dmitriev drafted a reconciliation plan to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Russia, the report says.

The Mueller team said in its report that it did not establish that the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russians to influence the 2016 election.

Dmitriev also worked directly with Kushner during the first administration. During the pandemic, Dmitriev coordinated with Kushner on the delivery of ventilators to the U.S. The ventilators were provided by RDIF and caused concern among officials at the Treasury Department that the U.S. might be violating its own sanctions, according to a senior U.S. official.

In recent years, Dmitriev has appeared on various American television stations and at events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos to promote the strengthening of trade ties between the U.S. and Russia.

He pushed a similar message at the meeting in Miami, according to public readouts of the meeting.

His visit also included a sit-down with U.S. Representative Anna Luna, a Florida Republican. In the meeting, Dmitriev and Luna spoke about increasing trade ties between the U.S. and Russia. Luna’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

The meeting between the two was set earlier in the month amid statements by Luna that she had received Russia’s files on assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

In a video by RIA, one of Russia’s state news agencies, Luna is seen accepting a box of chocolates with Putin’s face inscribed on the front.

The images appear to show Luna and Dmitriev in a conference room at the Faena Hotel in Miami.

The Faena Hotel is owned by Access Industries, a company run by Len Blavatnik, according to the company’s website. Blavatnik, who was born in Ukraine and is a dual U.S.-British national, initially earned his money partnering with Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire sanctioned by the U.S. for his ties to Putin, read the report.

Blavatnik fully divested from all Russian assets following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to his spokesperson.

Witkoff’s company, the Witkoff Group, does business with Blavatnik, including in Miami.