WASHINGTON — In the deep leather chairs of Manhattan’s luxurious Grand Havana Room late on Aug. 2, 2016, Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman, met with an associate who has been linked to Russian intelligence and discussed a plan to give Moscow control over part of eastern Ukraine.

“All that is required to start the process is a very minor ‘wink’ (or a slight push)” from Donald J. Trump, the associate, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, later wrote to Mr. Manafort. If Mr. Manafort could succeed in pushing the plan forward and positioning himself to oversee it, he would be welcomed in Moscow “at the very top level,” Mr. Kilimnik wrote.

Those exchanges are part of an extraordinary set of contacts between more than two dozen Russians and aides or associates of Mr. Trump’s documented in the report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, that was released Thursday.

In great detail, the report highlights a steady stream of overtures from a cast of Russians, including a mysterious woman pretending to be a niece of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Russian billionaires. Striving to forge inroads with and wield influence over the Trump team during the campaign and the transition, they dangled potential business deals, floated foreign policy options and repeatedly suggested a meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin.