NEW YORK — The Kremlin denied Monday any knowledge of a peace plan for Ukraine put forward by a Ukrainian lawmaker and two associates of President Trump.
The proposal, reported by The New York Times on Sunday, would essentially require the withdrawal of all Russian forces from eastern Ukraine and would allow for Ukrainian voters to decide in a referendum if Crimea, the Ukrainian territory seized by Russia in 2014, would be leased to Russia for 50 or 100 years.
The plan was put forward by Michael D. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer, who said he had delivered the document to the White House; Felix H. Sater, a business associate who has helped Trump scout deals in Russia; and a Ukrainian opposition lawmaker, Andrii V. Artemenko.
Artemenko has been part of an opposition movement shaped in part by Trump’s former campaign manager Paul J. Manafort.
While there is nothing illegal about unofficial diplomatic efforts, the revelations of the proposal, which seemed to advance Russian interests, come as the Trump administration is under intense scrutiny for any ties to Russia. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, resigned last week — ending the shortest tenure of anyone in that position since it was created in 1953 — over concerns that he had misrepresented his communications with the Russian ambassador to Vice President Mike Pence.
Artemenko contends he has evidence showing corruption involving Ukraine’s president, Petro O. Poroshenko, and he says he has received encouragement for his plans from top aides to President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry S. Peskov, denied Monday that the government had any knowledge of the plan. He said there was no path to resolving the Ukraine situation outside of the cease-fire agreements reached in 2015 in Minsk, Belarus. And he dismissed any notion that Russia might some day lease Crimea from Ukraine.
“In this case, there is nothing to discuss, we don’t know anything about any plans — this is first,’’ Peskov said at a news conference.
“Second, there is a general understanding that there is no alternative to the Minsk agreements, and that if any political-diplomatic solution of the Ukrainian problem can be reached, it has to be based on these agreements,’’ he said. “Third, how can Russia lease its own region? Such a formula is absurd.’’
Manafort said Monday that he had “no knowledge of this plan’’ and “no role in it.’’
