Putin and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff prepare for key Ukraine talks in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Tuesday after the White House said it was “very optimistic” about reaching a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has acted as an outside adviser in the diplomatic talks, is also expected to attend.

The summit comes after two days of negotiations in Florida between Ukrainian and U.S. officials, including Witkoff and Kushner, aimed at refining a U.S.-backed peace plan that had been seen as favorable to Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the talks as “constructive” but said there are “some difficult issues that still need to be resolved.”

Speaking after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, Zelensky said kyiv’s priorities in the peace talks were maintaining Ukraine’s sovereignty and ensuring strong security guarantees.

Zelensky said the “territorial question is the most difficult element” of the peace deal, and the Kremlin continues to push for Ukraine to cede territory in the east it still controls, something kyiv has long maintained it will never do.

Witkoff also held talks with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Zelensky and Ukraine’s new chief negotiator Rustem Umerov, while several key European leaders virtually joined the Zelensky-Macron meeting.

On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the draft peace deal had “been very refined,” adding, “I think the administration feels very optimistic.”

He continued: “But as for the details, I will let the negotiators negotiate. But we feel pretty good and we are hopeful that this war can finally come to an end.”

Last week, Putin said he had seen a draft peace plan proposed by the United States and that it could become the “basis” for a future agreement to end the war.

However, Kremlin officials later cast doubt on whether it would accept the proposal after kyiv and its European allies said they had secured changes to it.

The initial draft of the US-Russia peace plan that circulated in November caused consternation in kyiv and across Europe.

In addition to being heavily biased toward Moscow’s demands, it also dictated how several billion in Russian assets currently frozen in European financial institutions were to be invested, as well as setting the conditions for Ukraine’s access to the European market.

Macron said Monday that there is currently “no finalized peace plan to speak of” and insisted that any such proposal could only be worked out with input from Ukraine and Europe.

Macron said the issue of territorial concessions “could only be finalized by President Zelensky” and noted that issues over frozen Russian assets, security guarantees and Ukraine’s accession to the EU needed to involve European nations.

The French leader also praised the Trump administration’s efforts to end the conflict, which began in 2014 with Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, followed by a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said this week could be “pivotal” but that Moscow only wanted to negotiate “with those who simply offer them something on top of what they already have.”

He continued: “I am afraid that all the pressure will fall on the weaker side because that is the easiest way to stop this war when Ukraine surrenders, but this does not benefit anyone.”

In recent months, Moscow has at times appeared to cooperate with US attempts to broker a deal to end the war, but several of its demands go directly against Ukraine’s sovereignty and are considered unacceptable by kyiv.

While the issue of territory is the main sticking point, the issue of security guarantees for kyiv has also proven contentious.

kyiv and its European partners are interested in Ukraine receiving security guarantees – such as membership in NATO – that would protect it from being attacked again.

But Russia is vehemently opposed to this and Trump has also ruled out allowing Ukraine to join the military alliance.

The talks in Moscow on Tuesday came as Russian officials claimed to have captured the key strategic cities of Pokrovsk – known in Russian as Krasnoarmeysk – and Vovshansk in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials have not acknowledged that any of the cities have fallen to Russia.

According to open source intelligence projects that constantly monitor the front lines of the war, neither Vovshansk nor Pokrovsk have been fully captured by the Russian military.