Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) greets U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin in August. Witkoff was due back in Moscow next week to try to advance U.S. President Trump’s latest effort to end the almost four year long Russia-Ukraine war. File photo by Gavriil Grigorov/Kremlin/EPA
Nov. 26 (UPI) — Amid a U.S.-push to end the war in Ukraine, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow next week for talks on a proposed peace deal, the Kremlin said Wednesday.
The announcement from Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, who said preliminary agreement for the visit had been struck, came a day after Ukraine said it had reached a “common understanding” with the White House on a revised version of a 28-point plan floated by Trump last week.
Ushakov said Putin would “definitely” meet with Witkoff if he came, the state-run Tass news agency reported, on what would be his sixth visit to the Kremlin in nine months.
However, he said Russia was not in formal receipt of the peace plan for Ukraine, but had a copy obtained unofficially.
Ushakov said there were several versions, which caused some confusion, but said he believed “we have some of the latest versions.”
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday night, Trump said the plan had been “fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides,” and that they were going to keep talking.
“They’re talking about [exchanging] land going both ways and cleaning up the border,” he said, adding that frontiers that ran through a house or the middle of a highway or a town were not feasible, making nailing down final details a complex process “that doesn’t go that quickly.”
Trump said the issue of security guarantees was being worked out with the Europeans, whom he said would be involved to a very significant degree.
He said that while he wanted an agreement finalized quickly, there was no longer a deadline.
“I don’t have a deadline. You know what the deadline for me is? When it’s over.”
Trump had originally set a deadline of Thursday for Ukraine to sign the original deal drawn up with Russia, which he now said was not a plan but a roadmap or “a concept.”
Trump said that Witkoff might be accompanied on the trip by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, but said that had yet to be confirmed. He confirmed Kushner, a key player in getting Trump’s Gaza peace plan over the line last month, was involved in the process.
News of Witkoff’s visit came after a leaked transcript of a call with Ushakov in which he appeared to coach his Russian counterpart on how to get on the good side of Trump.
Trump dismissed suggestions that Witkoff was favoring Russia, saying that while he hadn’t heard what had been said, it sounded like typical negotiation tactics and that other members of his team would be doing the same with Ukraine.
“He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to ‘sell’ Ukraine to Russia. That’s what a dealmaker does. You got to say, ‘You got this, they want this. You got to convince them of this.’ You know, that a very standard form of negotiation,” said Trump.
