Peace efforts are in full swing and various negotiation constellations to reach an end to the war in Ukraine are succeeding each other. Today's summit in Moscow between Witkoff and Putin will begin, according to the Kremlin, around 3 p.m., Swedish time.
“An important day for peace: the team that delivered President Trump’s peace deal for Gaza is in Moscow to move forward with Trump’s peace initiative,” writes Russian peace negotiator Kirill Dmitriev on X.
“Must pay”
This is Witkoff's sixth visit to Russia this year. According to American media, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law who has attended previous rounds of negotiations on Ukraine, is also expected to participate in Moscow.
On Monday, US envoy Witkoff spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron, who met in Paris. Zelensky stressed the importance of a peace settlement that does not reward Russia for the war of aggression.
The attacker must pay for the aggression, he said.
Territories hot-button issue
The White House in Washington is expressing optimism about reaching a resolution to the war. At a press briefing on Monday, spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that the latest negotiations – with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida on Sunday – went “very well.”
The leader of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, has also assessed Sunday's meetings as "productive and successful."
After Zelensky's meeting with Macron in Paris yesterday, the Ukrainian president said he was ready to talk to US President Donald Trump about crucial parts of a possible peace plan. The biggest sticking point is believed to be territories, where Russia has so far refused to budge an inch from its demands.
