Tehran - BORNA - Meanwhile, Trump has directed envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss his new Ukraine peace plan. Trump said his original 28-point proposal had been “fine-tuned” with input from both sides.
Russia earlier criticized what it called “megaphone diplomacy” in the West, amid Ukrainian claims that Kiev has radically revised a draft peace plan delivered by Trump’s envoy to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky last week.
Zelensky reportedly hopes to travel to the US by the end of the week to “make a deal” on what are expected to be Ukraine's demands to be included in a draft peace plan, his office has announced.
French President Emmanuel Macron, a member of Kiev’s so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ that seeks to base its troops in a post-conflict Ukraine, has said Washington’s proposal still needs to be “discussed, negotiated, and improved,” summing up the joint stance of the EU and UK.
Western media claimed on Tuesday that US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has been holding talks with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi with a draft reportedly developed with a Ukrainian delegation in Switzerland over the weekend. The Kremlin has neither confirmed nor denied that talks are taking place.
Kiev’s European backers, blindsided by the emergence of the US plan, have emphasized a maximalist position, outright rejecting territorial concessions as part of a peace deal, which is a red line for Moscow.
Russia’s diplomats, not having been invited to any of the high-profile sessions convened quickly following the delivery of a peace plan to Kiev, nor having received any official documents from any party to the talks, have been understandably tight-lipped.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the EU and UK on Tuesday of attempting to undermine Trump’s peace efforts and distort the plan “for their own agenda.” Moscow remains, however, ready to discuss clauses in the American proposals with Washington, he stressed.
As it stands the respective sides are fundamentally as far apart as ever, despite the overtures being made to Washington by Kiev, and the megaphone diplomacy coming from Brussels.
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