Axios reports from behind the scenes of the White House meeting that started the new Ukraine peace talks

According to IsnaTheir meeting at the White House on November 18 — which had not been reported until now — set the stage for last weekend’s talks in Geneva; Negotiations that now more than ever gave hope to the American government to stop the war.

During these talks, the American and Ukrainian officials reduced the list of 28 conditions in the proposed peace plan to 20 and reached a substantial and serious agreement on 18 of them. A senior U.S. administration official said the two remaining conditions have not yet been made public “because they are sensitive issues.”

These two issues most likely include Ukraine’s territorial concessions to Russia and security guarantees to prevent further Russian invasions.

According to another source, during a White House strategy meeting, Trump suggested that US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll – who is a friend of Vance – take the plan to Ukraine, as he had already planned to travel to Kiev to assess Ukraine’s combat capabilities and morale.

“Dan Driscoll’s role was to provide an honest assessment of their military situation by interacting directly with the Ukrainian military,” the official said. “One of the most difficult things is measuring the will to fight.”

The Oval Office meeting was similar to other daily meetings on the Ukraine strategy that are held almost daily by phone — and at least once a week in person — among Trump’s inner circle. Vance, Rubio, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff are in this circle. Recently, Jared Kushner, the businessman and Trump’s son-in-law, has also joined this group. Wittkoff and Kushner were the ones who prepared the initial version of the 28-point plan.

After Vance reviewed the document and consulted with Rubio, the two set up a meeting at the White House to get Trump’s endorsement.

“It wasn’t just a document,” one of the sources said. It was a document that was supposed to start an official process. “On the Gaza issue, the only way forward was to put things on paper, and the only way to get an agreement on Ukraine is to specify on paper what the starting point of a possible agreement would look like.”

This meeting was held between the official events of the White House with Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

Axios further wrote that Russia started the war in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far shown little interest in real negotiations. Putin has been slowly advancing on the battlefield, destroying Ukraine’s power grid on the eve of a harsh winter and showing no sign of stopping the attacks.

Ukrainian politicians, European officials and US critics of Trump have criticized the peace plan, saying it gives Russia concessions it has yet to earn. When Rubio traveled to Geneva last weekend to finalize the details of the plan, the move sparked a flurry of rumors that Vance and Rubio were at odds over Ukraine.

Rubio denied the reports in a post on the X social network Tuesday night, writing, “These people aren’t just wrong — they’re actually making things up.”

“There is a false narrative that there are two competing teams — the pro-Ukraine team led by Marco Rubio and the anti-Ukrainian team led by J.D. Vance,” one official said. This is not true… If someone has such an approach, he cannot remain in this government. “There is only one team here.”

Administration officials and advisers close to Vance and Rubio say the two have operated like a two-man team throughout — a legacy of their friendship and cooperation when they were both in the Senate. Their senior staff are friends and the two share a common advisor named Andrew Baker.

So far, Rubio has not shown any desire to compete with Vance in the 2028 presidential election and has repeatedly mentioned Vance as a potential candidate of the Republican Party for the upcoming elections.

Unlike Vance, Rubio has no political advisory circle or campaign committee to lay the groundwork for a presidential run.

Trump has yet to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to sit down for face-to-face talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — but advisers say he is still persistent, Axios wrote.

A White House adviser said: “Everyone is focused on reaching an agreement and stopping the killing.” This process started with the peace plan.

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