Donald Trump’s overseas envoy Steve Witkoff will hold talks at the Kremlin next week as the US continues to push for a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
The visit, which was confirmed by Vladimir Putin’s close foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov on Wednesday, comes after Ukraine said it had reached a “common understanding” with the White House on the outline of a potential peace deal.
On Tuesday, Trump said he had tasked Witkoff to meet the Russian president, while the US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll was being sent to Ukraine.
It follows the emergence last week of a 28-point draft plan, which the US president said had since been “fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides”.
Speaking to reporters before the Kremlin confirmed the visit, Trump said his son-in-law Jared Kushner – who has acted as an adviser to the White House during previous diplomatic talks – may also attend the Kremlin meeting.
He said an agreement would involve land concessions “both ways” and “trying to clean up the border”.
The president, who has made securing a deal to end the conflict a key foreign policy goal, said he had not given either side a date to agree a deal by, saying “the deadline for me is when it’s over”.
The Kremlin previously said that Russia had not yet been consulted on the new draft deal, warning it may not accept amendments to last week’s plan.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that while Moscow had been in favour of the initial US framework, the situation would be “fundamentally different” if it had undergone substantial changes.
As of Tuesday morning the Kremlin had not received a copy of the new plan, Lavrov said, accusing Europe of undermining US peace efforts.
American officials did not publicly address Russia’s concerns, although Driscoll and Russian representatives held meetings on Monday and Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.
Some of the issues which Russia and Ukraine are still deeply at odds over have reportedly remained unaddressed so far, including security guarantees for Kyiv and control of several regions in Ukraine’s east where fighting is taking place.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that he was ready to meet Trump to discuss outstanding “sensitive points”, with his administration aiming for a meeting before the end of the month.
“I am counting on further active cooperation with the American side and with President (Donald) Trump. Much depends on America, because Russia pays the greatest attention to American strength,” he said.
A day earlier, Zelensky said the 28-point plan had been slimmed down, with some provisions removed.
Trump wrote on social media that he looked forward to meeting with presidents Zelensky and Putin “soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages”.
Despite the White House’s relative optimism, European leaders seemed doubtful that, after almost four years of war, peace could be within reach. French President Emmanuel Macron said he saw “no Russian will for a ceasefire”, while Downing Street warned there was “a long way to go – a tough road ahead.”
On Tuesday, Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer chaired a meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing, a loose grouping of Ukraine’s allies in Europe and beyond who have pledged continued defence support in the event of a ceasefire, including tentative talks on a potential peacekeeping force.
During the call – which was also joined by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – the leaders agreed to set up a task force with the US to “accelerate” workon the security guarantees that could be offered to Ukraine.
The issue of security guarantees is only one of the areas on which Moscow and Kyiv are at odds. On Monday, Zelensky said the “main problem” blocking peace was Putin’s demand for legal recognition of the territory Russia had seized.
Moscow has consistently demanded full Ukrainian withdrawal from the whole of the eastern Donbas, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russian forces also control the Crimean peninsula – which Russia annexed in 2014 – and large parts of two other regions, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
After weeks in which diplomacy appeared to have stalled, there has been a flurry of activity since the US-backed plan was leaked.
The original draft included Ukraine agreeing to cede areas it continues to control, pledging not to join Nato and significantly cutting the size of its armed forces – elements which seemed to reflect key Kremlin demands.
While Putin said the original draft could form the “basis” for a deal, Zelensky responded by saying Ukraine faced a choice between retaining the US as a partner and its “dignity”. European leaders pushed back on several elements.
On the eve of talks over the plan in Geneva on Sunday between American, European and Ukrainian officials, Rubio was forced to publicly insist it was “authored by the US” after a group of senators claimed he had told them it was effectively a Russian draft, not the White House’s position.
Since then, both the US and Ukraine have hailed progress on the draft, with Zelensky saying it represented “the right approach” after securing changes.
While Trump had originally pushed for Ukraine to accept the plan swiftly, the president told reporters on Tuesday that the original version “was just a map”, adding: “That was not a plan, it was a concept.”
Also on Tuesday, Bloomberg published a transcript of what it said was a call on 14 October between Trump’s diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff and Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide.
Asked about the transcript – in which Witkoff reportedly discussed how the Kremlin should approach Trump, and said Ukraine would have to give up land to secure a peace deal – Trump told reporters it represented a “very standard form of negotiations”. BBC News has not independently verified the reported leaked call.
Meanwhile, the fighting continues. Both Russia and Ukraine said strikes had been carried out on Tuesday night in Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine’s regional head there, Ivan Federov, said at least seven people had been injured, while Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed governor, reported that Kyiv had hit energy grids in areas it controls, leaving up to 40,000 people without electricity.
Tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, and millions of people have fled their homes since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
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