Putin and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff set for key Ukraine talks in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Tuesday, after the White House said it was “very optimistic” about reaching an agreement to end the war in Ukraine.

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who served as an external adviser in the diplomatic talks, is also expected to attend the meeting.

The summit comes after two days of negotiations in Florida between Ukrainian and American officials, including Vitkov and Kushner, aimed at improving a US-backed peace plan that was seen as favorable to Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the talks as “constructive,” but said there were “some difficult issues that remain to be resolved.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Witkov’s meeting with Putin will take place during the second half of Tuesday.

Speaking after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, Zelensky said Kiev’s priorities in peace talks were to preserve Ukraine’s sovereignty and secure strong security guarantees.

Zelensky said “the territorial issue is the most difficult element” of the peace deal, with the Kremlin continuing to pressure Ukraine to give up territory in the east it still controls – something Kiev has long maintained it would never do.

The talks in Moscow on Tuesday come hours after Russian officials claimed to have captured the key strategic city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, known in Russian as Krasnoarmysk, and the border city of Vovchansk in northeastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials have not acknowledged that either city has fallen into Russian hands, and open source intelligence projects monitoring the war’s front lines indicate that the Russian army has neither fully controlled Vovchansk nor Pokrovsk.

The head of the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, said that Russia’s main goal appears to be to ensure that all pressures included in the US peace plan are exerted on Ukraine.

Russia has spent nearly a year and a half trying to seize Pokrovsk and released a video showing Putin visiting a command center at the weekend and was quoted as saying that Russia had made progress in “an important area, and we all understand how important it is.”

Ahead of his trip to Moscow, Witkov also held talks with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Zelensky and new Ukrainian chief negotiator Rustam Omerov, while several key European leaders actually joined the Zelensky-Macron meeting.

Speaking on Monday, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said the draft peace agreement had been “substantially revised,” and added: “I think the administration is feeling very optimistic.”

She continued: “But regarding the details, I will let the negotiators negotiate. But we feel very good, and we hope that this war will finally end.”

Last week, Putin said he had seen a draft of the peace plan proposed by the United States, and that it could become the “basis” for a future agreement to end the war.

But Kremlin officials later questioned whether they would accept the proposal after Kiev and its European allies said they had obtained amendments to it.

the Initial draft of the US-Russian peace plan This message, circulated in November, sparked panic in Kiev and throughout Europe.

In addition to being very partial to Moscow’s demands, it has also limited the amount of billions it will bring in Frozen Russian assets They should currently be invested in European financial institutions, as well as setting the conditions for access to Ukrainian markets in Europe.

Speaking on Monday, Macron said there was currently “no final peace plan to speak of” and insisted that any such proposal could only be reached with input from Ukraine and Europe.

Macron said that the issue of territorial concessions “can only be resolved by President Zelensky” and noted that issues related to frozen Russian assets, security guarantees and Ukraine’s accession to the European Union need to involve European countries.

The French president also praised the Trump administration’s efforts to end the conflict, which began in 2014 with Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, followed by a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said this week could be “pivotal”, but Moscow only wants to negotiate “with those who offer it something above and beyond what they already have.”

She continued: “I fear that all the pressure will be on the weaker side because this is the easiest way to stop this war when Ukraine surrenders, but this is not in anyone’s interest.”

In recent months, Moscow has appeared at times engaged in US attempts to broker a deal to end the war, but many of its demands directly conflict with Ukraine’s sovereignty and are considered unacceptable by Kiev.

Although the issue of territory is the main point of contention, the issue of security guarantees for Kiev has also proven controversial.

Kiev and its European partners are keen for Ukraine to obtain security guarantees – such as membership in NATO – that would protect it from being attacked again.

But Russia strongly opposes this, and Trump has also ruled out allowing Ukraine to join the military alliance.