Key facts
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly met with Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
- The meeting took place on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Asheville, North Carolina.
- The discussion centered on a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine backed by Washington.
- Ukraine stated it had no prior knowledge of the meeting.
- Previous peace initiatives have not resulted in a breakthrough.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly met with Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Asheville, North Carolina, to discuss a Washington-backed 28-point peace plan for Ukraine. This meeting marks the first in-person attendance by the Russian finance minister at such an event since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The meeting was not publicly announced, and Ukrainian officials indicated they were unaware of it.
The U.S. is reportedly seeking to revive its efforts to broker a peace deal, despite previous attempts failing to achieve a breakthrough amid Moscow's territorial demands and refusal of a ceasefire. An earlier version of the 28-point plan, brokered by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, was published last November and imposed significant demands on Ukraine, which was widely interpreted as a call for surrender. Subsequent revisions discussed with Ukrainian and Western officials were rejected by the Kremlin, leading to negotiations stalling.
More recently, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in early August that Ukraine, the U.S., and European partners had drafted a one-page plan that included a ceasefire and the establishment of a "free economic zone" in Donbas. However, Moscow's demands include the cession of the entire eastern region. It remains unclear if Bessent's discussed plan is identical to Zelensky's mentioned proposal, and the Kremlin has already expressed opposition to both a ceasefire and a buffer zone in Donbas.