Washington: US President Donald Trump said that he has directed his special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in hope of finalizing a peace deal on the Ukraine crisis.
“In the hopes of finalizing this Peace Plan, I have directed my Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with President Putin in Moscow and, at the same time, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will be meeting with the Ukrainians,” Trump wrote on Tuesday, in a post on Truth Social.
“The original 28-Point Peace Plan, which was drafted by the United States, has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides, and there are only a few remaining points of disagreement,” Trump said, adding that his team has made “tremendous progress” over the past week.
Trump said he looks forward to hopefully meeting with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky soon, but only when the peace deal is final or in its final stages, Xinhua news agency reported.
The US-proposed 28-point peace plan was unveiled last week.
Following its release, representatives from the United States, Ukraine and several European countries met in Geneva on Sunday to discuss the plan.
On Monday and Tuesday, US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll held talks with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi on the draft, according to a statement from the US Army.
Earlier on Sunday, representatives from the United States, Ukraine and European countries met in Geneva as the White House pushed for agreement on the 28-point plan.
Following a meeting between the Ukrainian delegation and national security advisers from Britain, France and Germany, the Ukrainian side held bilateral talks with the US representatives.
It’s reported that Sunday’s Geneva meeting was attended on the US side by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, with Zelensky’s office chief Andriy Yermak leading the Ukrainian delegation.
According to a joint statement issued by the White House on Sunday night, the talks between US representatives and Ukrainian officials in Geneva made “meaningful progress toward aligning positions.”
(IANS)
