US President Donald Trump’s special envoy met with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday in Moscow as Washington intensifies its push for a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin published a short video on Telegram of Steve Witkoff greeting the Russian leader before sitting down at a table with him. Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and envoy for economic relations Kirill Dmitriev were also present.
Witkoff was set to raise with Putin a US demand that Ukraine have the right to develop its own army and defense industry as part of any peace agreement.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Trump, who is rushing to end the war as he approaches the first 100 days of his presidency, on Wednesday ramped up pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to accept a peace deal that critics fear will favor Moscow. Witkoff’s meeting with Putin is his fourth as the US works to achieve a ceasefire.
Agreeing to let Kyiv maintain its armed forces, as demanded by Ukraine and its European allies, would mean Putin would have to give up on his demand for the “demilitarization” of the country, one of his main stated aims in the war that is now in its fourth year.
Other US proposals for a deal have tilted far more in Moscow’s favor, including Washington’s recognition of Russia’s 2014 occupation of Crimea and freezing the war largely along existing battle lines that would leave Putin in control of swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine. Kyiv would also be required to abandon its goal of joining NATO.
The international community has resisted recognizing the Crimean peninsula as Russian to avoid legitimizing Putin’s illegal annexation. Zelenskiy has repeatedly said he would not cede territory to Moscow.
Asked if he would accept a deal in which Crimea and other regions Putin has taken from Ukraine were folded into Russia, Trump in an interview with Time magazine published yesterday said: “Crimea will stay with Russia.”
He added that Zelenskiy “understands that.”
The US leader on Thursday said that he is putting “a lot of pressure on both” sides in the war.
He said he thought Putin “wants to make a deal. We’re going to find out very soon.”
Asked what concessions Russia has offered, Trump said: “Stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country — pretty big concession.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview with CBS News said there were “several signs that we are moving in the right direction” toward a deal, while adding that Moscow still saw issues that needed to be negotiated.
Russia has continued to bomb Ukrainian cities even as talks have continued. It carried out the biggest airstrike of the year against Ukraine earlier this week, targeting Kyiv and killing at least 12 people. Trump criticized Putin for the latest round of attacks on Ukraine, while Zelenskiy has called for an “unconditional ceasefire” to facilitate talks.
Also yesterday, Russian Major General Yaroslav Moskalik, the deputy head of the main operations directorate for Russia’s General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car in Balashikha, just outside Moscow, the country’s investigative committee said.
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