New York: As the carnage continued in the Ukraine War, US President Donald Trump said that his peace plan has been “fine-tuned” with inputs from the two countries, and he is sending envoys to the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to finalise a deal.
“There are only a few remaining points of disagreement” over the 28-point plan drafted by the US after it was fine-tuned, Trump said on Truth Social on Tuesday.
“In the hopes of finalising this Peace Plan, I have directed my Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with President [Vladimir] Putin in Moscow and, at the same time, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will be meeting with the Ukrainians”, he wrote.
He said that he was looking forward to meeting with Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, “but only when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages”.
Trump had said he was setting a Thanksgiving Day deadline – Thursday when the feast is observed in the US – for Ukraine to agree to the deal, but has since said he was open to extending it if there was progress.
The war, which, according to Trump, claimed the lives of 25,000 soldiers last month, continued to rage with Russia hitting Kyiv with missiles and drones on Tuesday.
In Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated that his country, which was awaiting the new draft of the plan, would not agree to it “If the spirit and letter of Anchorage are lost in the key understandings we have documented”.
It was not known what he specifically meant, as any understanding between Trump and Putin at their Alaska summit in August was not made public.
US and Russian officials also met in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday to discuss a peace deal.
Driscoll, who was with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Geneva over the weekend for talks with a Ukrainian delegation led by Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelensky’s office, discussed the developments with Russians before shuttling off to the Zelensky meeting.
Driscoll’s spokesperson, Jeff Tolbert, said the talks with the Russians were going well, “and we remain optimistic”.
Critics in his party and among the European allies said Trump’s original peace plan was drafted by Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. was weighted in favour of Russia.
Some of the modifications to the peace plan, according to media reports, include removing the maximum number of Ukrainian troops, which had originally been set at 600,000, and leaving another touchy issue, NATO’s role in Ukraine, to future discussions.
Another issue that upset the European allies is allowing Russia to keep the territories it had seized and gain those it coveted.
Zelensky reportedly told his European allies, “We firmly believe security decisions about Ukraine must include Ukraine, security decisions about Europe must include Europe”.
Without that, he said, “there is always a high risk it simply won’t work”.
(IANS)
