White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Tuesday (April 4) that US President Donald Trump has sent his special envoy for Middle East and Eastern Europe affairs Steve Witkoff to the Russian capital Moscow this week, and is expected to hold a new round of negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This trip will be Witkov's fourth meeting with Putin.
Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov also confirmed on the 22nd that Moscow is ready to welcome Witkov's visit and the two sides will further discuss "promoting the peace roadmap."
Lee Witt said that when Trump and Witkoff met on the 22nd, they emphasized that "negotiations are still ongoing" and that the president hopes to see peace. "He is increasingly disappointed with the actions of both sides." Trump is scheduled to travel to the Vatican on the 26th to attend Pope Francis' funeral, where he will also meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
According to the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, Putin proposed to "stop the offensive on the current front" as one of the prerequisites for reaching a peace agreement with the United States when he met with Witkov in St. Petersburg earlier this month. The move was seen as the first official signal from Putin that he was willing to relax his territorial demands since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Financial Times said that Putin's message prompted the United States to propose a new "peace plan" and present it to its European and American allies at a closed-door meeting in Paris on the 17th of this month.
The report pointed out that Putin's move may be intended to force the Trump administration to accept the Kremlin's broader conditions, including not allowing Ukraine to join NATO and the United States recognizing Russia's annexation of Crimea. However, the US State Department did not confirm this content and emphasized that "it will continue to promote solutions that are consistent with international law."
Zelensky took a tough stance on this, reiterating on the 22nd that "Crimea belongs to Ukraine, and any negotiations that enter the stage of recognizing Russia's occupation of the territory will be dragged into a trap by Russia to prolong the war."
At the same time, delegations from Ukraine, the United States, Britain and France will hold talks in London on Wednesday (23rd), with the US side represented by Keith Kellogg, another special envoy of Trump. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts. The Wall Street Journal reported that if countries reach a preliminary consensus at this meeting, the peace proposal may be formally submitted to Moscow.
However, in response to the above news, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Russian media a few days ago: "There is a lot of false information circulating now, including from so-called well-known media, so you should only listen to first-hand information."
Previously, Washington had announced that if no substantial progress was made within a few days, it would consider suspending its mediation on a ceasefire agreement and allow Ukraine and Russia to seek a solution on their own.
