The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced today that White House envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow to discuss the “few points of contention” that prevent an agreement on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The American leader indicated, on the Truth Social network, that he hopes to meet, himself, with his Russian counterparts, Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian, Volodymyr Zelensky, but “only when the agreement to end this war is concluded or if the final phase” of negotiations has been reached.
Trump said that Witkoff will be accompanied in Moscow by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who recently joined Washington’s efforts on this dossier.
“I will be updated on all progress made, along with Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War [Defesa]Pete Hegseth, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles,” he added.
Before this publication on social media, the US President expressed confidence that an agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine is “very close”, in a phase of intense dialogue between Washington and Kiev and Moscow.
“It’s not easy, but I think we’re very close to an agreement. We’ll see,” said the US leader at the White House, on the sidelines of the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony.
Trump acknowledged that he thought a deal “would be easier”, but insisted that his efforts were making progress.
The White House spokeswoman had already highlighted today, on the social network X, that “tremendous progress” had been made in the last week in Washington’s attempts to bring the parties back to negotiations.
“Some sensitive but not insurmountable details still need to be resolved, which will require further discussions between Ukraine, Russia and the United States,” said Karoline Leavitt, without providing further details.
Today, US authorities also highlighted advances in talks between the Secretary of the Army and a Russian delegation.
“The talks are going well and we remain optimistic,” said the government official’s spokesman, Jeff Tolbert, reporting on the discussions taking place in Abu Dhabi since Monday night.
Last week, Trump had given Zelensky a deadline of Thursday (November 27) to respond to his 28-point peace plan, which led to urgent contacts between the main European leaders, from Kiev and Washington.
In the aftermath of these meetings, held on Sunday, Ukrainians and Americans stated that a future peace agreement should respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, after a first version of the proposal made public included most of the Russian demands, including territorial cessions to Moscow, reduction of the Ukrainian army and impediment of Kiev’s accession to NATO.
The 28-point plan was later scaled back, and Trump appeared pleased with the outcome of negotiations with Europeans and Ukrainians, declaring in Truth Social that “something good can happen.”
Kiev now hopes to “organize Zelensky’s visit to the United States as soon as possible, in November, to finalize the remaining steps and reach an agreement with President Trump”, according to the secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, Rustem Umerov.
Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov commented today, in turn, that Moscow was waiting for the United States to present the new version of its proposal.
“We have become aware of a European plan that, at first glance, is not at all constructive and is unacceptable for us,” declared Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s diplomatic advisor, on Monday.
A source close to the negotiating process told the France-Presse news agency (AFP) that the new version of the US plan is “significantly better” for Kiev.