Kremlin confirms US envoy visit as peace talks progress

A senior Kremlin official confirmed on Wednesday that US special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to visit Moscow next week as efforts pick up speed to find a consensus on ending the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

But Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, insisted that Kremlin officials haven’t officially received the initial US peace proposal, although they have acknowledged that they have seen a copy obtained through back channels. Representatives of the United States, Russia and Ukraine held talks earlier this week.

“Contact is ongoing, including via telephone, but no one has yet sat down at a roundtable and discussed this point by point. That hasn’t happened,” Ushakov told Russian state media.

Ukrainian officials didn’t confirm whether US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who in recent weeks has played a high-profile role in the peace efforts, would be in Kyiv in the coming days, as US President Donald Trump indicated on Tuesday.

Trump’s plan for ending the war became public last week, setting off diplomatic maneouvering.

The initial version appeared heavily slanted towards Russian demands for halting Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.

After weekend talks in Geneva between US and Ukrainian officials, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the plan could be “workable,” although key points remain unresolved.

A Ukrainian official said Zelensky hoped to meet with Trump in the coming days.

Witkoff’s role in the peace efforts came under a renewed spotlight on Tuesday when a report indicated that he coached Ushakov, the Putin aide, on how Russia’s leader should pitch Trump on the Ukraine peace plan.

Trump described Witkoff’s reported approach to the Russians in the call as “standard” negotiating procedure.

“He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia,” Trump told reporters Tuesday night. “That’s what a deal maker does.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that he “wouldn’t exaggerate (the) significance” of the leaked call, Russian state news outlet Tass reported.

However, “it’s clear that there will be a very large number of people in various countries, including the United States, who will try to disrupt these efforts toward peace,” Peskov said from Kyrgyzstan, where Putin travelled this week.

Asked whether a peace agreement is closer than ever, Peskov told reporters, “It’s a little too early to say that,” according to Tass.

The southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia came under a large Russian drone attack overnight, damaging more than 50 residential buildings, including a university dormitory filled with people, the head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov, said on Wednesday.

The attack wounded at least 19 people, he said.

Russian air defenses, meanwhile, downed 33 Ukrainian drones overnight over various Russian regions and the Black Sea, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Ukrainian forces struck a manufacturing plant in Cheboksary, western Russia, that produces equipment and components for cruise and ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s General Staff said Wednesday.

European countries, which are alarmed by Russia’s aggression and see their own future at stake in negotiations over Ukraine, are fighting to make their voices heard in the talks as Washington takes the lead.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday that Europe wants the war to end as quickly as possible.

“But an agreement negotiated by great powers without the approval of the Ukrainians and without the approval of the Europeans won’t be a basis for a real, sustainable peace in Ukraine,” Merz told lawmakers in Berlin.

“Europe is not a plaything, but a sovereign actor for its own interests and values.”

The head of the European Union’s executive, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, was upbeat about recent developments, saying there is “an opportunity here to make real progress” toward peace.

She insisted that any settlement must include future security guarantees for Ukraine. At the same time, she said a deal can’t contain limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces or block its path to Nato membership.

Associated Press