US President Donald Trump has announced he will send special envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin and discuss proposals to end the war in Ukraine. Despite White House optimism, negotiations have failed to achieve a breakthrough on key issues such as territorial control and security guarantees.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that he hopes to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin soon, but only when a final deal is near. Zelenskyy expressed willingness to meet Trump as soon as possible to finalise an agreement. Meanwhile, US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has been dispatched to Ukraine for further discussions and is expected in Kyiv later this week.
Ukrainian officials said they are close to accepting the framework of a deal, with the revised US-Ukraine proposal raising the cap on future military forces from 600,000 to 800,000 members. However, Russia has not agreed to the revised terms. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted any peace plan must reflect the spirit of the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, where Trump appeared to support Ukrainian territorial concessions.
Ongoing Russian attacks continue, with 22 missiles and 464 drones fired at Ukraine on Tuesday night, killing seven people. Zelenskyy stressed that any peace talks must include European allies, telling 40 nations that security decisions about Europe require European involvement.
