Russia-Ukraine: Witkoff to meet Putin in Moscow while Zelenskyy tours Europe

Moscow: US special envoy Steve Witkoff was due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, taking to the Kremlin an embryonic peace plan that Washington hopes can end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

Coinciding with Witkoff’s trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

After months of frustration in his efforts to stop the fighting, US President Donald Trump is deploying officials to get traction for his peace proposals. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will join the meeting between Putin and Witkoff, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He said the talks would take “as long as needed” and would involve only Witkoff, Kushner and an interpreter from the US side.

The talks have followed parallel lines so far, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sitting down with Ukrainian officials, and now Witkoff in Moscow. Zelenskyy said he met on Tuesday with the Ukrainian delegation that returned from the latest round of negotiations with US representatives in Florida.

Rubio said those talks made progress, but added that “there’s more work to be done.”

Zelenskyy said the Florida talks took as their cue a document that both sides drafted at an earlier meeting in Geneva. The Ukrainian leader said that the document was now “finalised,” although he didn’t explain what that meant.

Ukrainian diplomats are working to ensure that European partners are “substantially involved” in decision-making, Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app, and warned about what he said were Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at steering the negotiations.

“Ukrainian intelligence will provide partners with the information we have about Russia’s true intentions and its attempts to use diplomatic efforts as cover to ease sanctions and block important collective European decisions,” Zelenskyy said.