By ILLIA NOVIKOV and SAM MCNEIL, Associated Press
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A senior Kremlin official confirmed Wednesday that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to visit Moscow next week as efforts to find a consensus on ending the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine pick up speed.
But Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, insisted that Kremlin officials still haven’t seen a U.S. peace proposal, even though representatives of the United States, Russia and Ukraine held talks earlier this week in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
“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 U.S. 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 U.S. President Donald Trump indicated Tuesday.
Russia cautious on peace prospects
Trump’s plan for ending the war became public last week, setting off a spate of diplomatic maneuvering. The initial version appeared heavily slanted toward Russian demands for halting Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.
After weekend talks in Geneva between U.S. and Ukrainian officials, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the plan could be “workable,” although key points remain unresolved. A Ukrainian official said that Zelenskyy hoped to meet with Trump in the coming days.
Witkoff’s role in the peace efforts came under a renewed spotlight 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 aboard Air Force One as he flew to his home in Florida on Tuesday night. “That’s what a dealmaker 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 traveled 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.
Russian drones hit a Ukrainian university dorm
Russia’s grim war of attrition in Ukraine continued as a backdrop to the diplomatic jockeying, with civilian areas once again struck.
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 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.
Europe wants to be heard
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 that a deal can’t contain limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces or block its path to NATO membership. Those limits were part of the initial proposal.
“As a sovereign nation, there can be no limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces that would leave the country vulnerable to future attacks,” she said during a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “This is as much about deterrence as it is about Europe’s security, because Ukraine’s security is Europe’s security.”
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, expressed doubt about Russia’s willingness to engage in peace talks.
“Right now, we see zero indication that Russia is ready for a ceasefire. Russia is not winding down its military machine, but ramping it up,” Kallas said after a meeting of the foreign ministers of the 27 EU nations in Brussels.
Additional pressure on Russia, such as more economic sanctions and seizing Moscow’s frozen assets, is needed to push Moscow to the negotiation table, she told a news conference.
“We still need to get from a situation where Russia pretends to negotiate to a situation where they need to negotiate.”
Sam McNeil reported from Brussels. Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, and Geir Moulson in Berlin, contributed to this report.
