Ukraine backs “essence” of US peace plan as Trump signals progress, sends envoy to Putin

Ukraine says it supports the “essence” of a modified United States proposal to end the war with Russia, as President Donald Trump insists “progress” is being made and announces he will dispatch his special envoy to Moscow for direct talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Tuesday brought a burst of diplomatic activity following talks in Geneva between US and Ukrainian negotiators, where Trump’s original plan, seen by Kyiv as a Russian wish list, had demanded territorial concessions, limits on Ukraine’s military and abandonment of NATO ambitions.

Speaking to the “coalition of the willing”, a group of 30 countries backing Kyiv,  Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to “move forward” with the still-unpublished “framework”, while noting that some “sensitive points” remained unresolved.

At the White House, Trump acknowledged the complexity of the process but struck an upbeat tone.

“We’re getting close to a deal,” he said. “I thought that would be an easier [deal], but I think we’re making progress.”

Later, on Truth Social, Trump said he would send envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Putin in Moscow to resolve “a few” remaining differences. He added that he hoped to meet both Putin and Zelensky “soon”, “but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages”.

Russia, however, showed little sign of enthusiasm. After a deadly missile barrage on Kyiv overnight, Moscow warned that any revised plan must reflect the “spirit and letter” of understandings reached at Trump and Putin’s Alaska summit earlier this year.

“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established, then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation [for Russia],” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

From Moscow, correspondent Yulia Shapovalova reported that uncertainty remains high in the Kremlin, despite alleged “behind-the-scenes interactions” between Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Witkoff. She noted Russian dissatisfaction with the revised plan, which no longer demands Ukrainian troop withdrawals from Donbas, allows NATO membership, and does not cap Ukraine’s armed forces.

Still, a note of cautious optimism emerged from elsewhere. US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, after meetings with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, said:

“The talks are going well and we remain optimistic.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed that tone, saying there are “a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States”.