Kremlin confirms US envoy will visit as talks on ending war in Ukraine continue

US special envoy Steve Witkoff, second left, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, at the talks with the Ukrainian delegation at the US Mission to International Organisations in Geneva at the weekend (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)

A senior Kremlin official confirmed that US special envoy Steve Witkoff is to visit Moscow next week as efforts pick up speed to find a consensus on ending the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

But Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, insisted that Kremlin officials have not officially received the initial US peace proposal, although they have acknowledged that they have seen a copy obtained through back channels.

Representatives of the United States, Russia and Ukraine held talks earlier this week in the United Arab Emirates.

Russian Presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

“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,” Mr Ushakov told Russian state media.

Ukrainian officials did not confirm whether US 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 US President Donald Trump indicated on Tuesday.

Mr Trump’s plan for ending the war became public last week, setting off diplomatic manoeuvring. The initial version appeared heavily slanted toward Russian demands for halting Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.

After weekend talks in Geneva between US and Ukrainian officials, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the plan could be “workable”, although key points remain unresolved. A Ukrainian official said Mr Zelensky hoped to meet Mr Trump in the coming days.

A man walks in front of burning residential building after a Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Wednesday (Kateryna Klochko/AP)

Mr Witkoff’s role in the peace efforts came under a renewed spotlight on Tuesday when a report indicated that he coached Mr Ushakov, the Putin aide, on how Russia’s leader should pitch to Mr Trump on the Ukraine peace plan.

Mr Trump described Mr 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,” Mr Trump told reporters Tuesday night. “That’s what a dealmaker does.”