President Donald Trump’s chief interlocutor with the Russian government last month advised a senior aide to Vladimir Putin on how the Russian leader should go about pitching the U.S. president on a Ukraine peace plan.

The United States and Ukraine were set to continue work on Monday on a plan to end the war with Russia after agreeing to modify an earlier proposal that was widely seen as too favorable to Moscow.

On a flight back from the Middle East, in the afterglow of brokering a deal between Israel and Hamas, envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner began writing the first draft of what would eventually beco...