Multiple family members of top Kremlin negotiator Kirill Dmitriev have held American passports as recently as this year – and used them to enter Ukraine and the US, official sources told Kyiv Post.
Just days before US and Russian negotiators gathered in Saudi Arabia for talks over Ukraine’s future, Dmitriev’s sister – Natalia Dmitrieva – crossed into Ukraine on a US passport.
Natalia Dmitrieva entered Ukraine by land on an American passport on Feb. 8, and departed four days later, according to border control records and multiple sources familiar with her movements. Her visit – previously unreported by the media – came as her brother prepared to represent Moscow in sensitive talks with US counterparts that began in Riyadh on Feb. 18.
Official travel records reviewed by Kyiv Post, along with confirmation from multiple intelligence sources who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive information, showed that Natalia Dmitrieva frequently traveled on a US passport. Her mother, Tamara Shevchenko, has also used a US passport for international travel since at least 2018.
The discovery that both Natalia Dmitrieva and Shevchenko recently held American passports – and that Natalia Dmitrieva traveled to Ukraine just days before her brother entered peace talks earlier this year on behalf of Moscow – casts new doubt on the loyalties and ties of Dmitriev as Putin’s highly trusted confidant.
It also complicates public perceptions of Dmitriev’s role. While he presents himself abroad as a staunch defender of Russia’s war aims, his immediate family members have been able to live, travel, and hold assets in the West far from the front lines he helps to shape through diplomacy.
Dmitriev’s extensive links to the West are well known. Born in Kyiv, he studied at Stanford University and later Harvard Business School before returning to Russia, where he rose to head the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a Kremlin-backed sovereign wealth fund.
What had not been known until now is that his sister and mother appear to have secured American citizenship and have continued to maintain personal and financial connections to both Ukraine and the US throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Although most people who hold an American passport are American citizens, in some circumstances it is possible to obtain a travel document as a non-citizen US national. Kyiv Post has not yet been able to verify how Natalia Dmitrieva and Shevchenko, both of whom were in Ukraine and have held Ukrainian passports, received their US passports or if they are full American citizens.
Traveling without a worry
Border control records reviewed by Kyiv Post show that both in entering and exiting Ukraine, Natalia Dmitriev crossed the border late at night.
Sources and official documents confirmed that Natalia Dmitrieva traveled on a US passport, with no other recorded entries into Ukraine since 2019. Other flights she took from Kyiv in the past – on her American passport – included travel to New York, Paris, London, Istanbul, and Tel Aviv.
Available travel records also show that Tamara Shevchenko, Dmitriev’s mother, used a US passport for international travel since at least 2018. While one source indicated that Shevchenko left Ukraine around the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv Post could not independently verify her subsequent movements or current place of residence.
Shevchenko last used her Ukrainian passport in 2018 for a trip from Kyiv to Istanbul. Like her daughter, she also traveled from Kyiv to Paris, London, Istanbul, and other international cities over the last seven years.
Documents showed that both women were born in Ukraine. Natalia Dimitrieva’s Ukrainian passport was issued in Moscow in 2013. Shevechenko, who was born in Chernihiv, was issued her Ukrainian passport in Kyiv in 2017.
