 "Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff arrives in Russia for talks, expected to meet Putin")
Steve Witkoff, a special envoy of US President Donald Trump, has arrived in Moscow to hold talks with Russian leaders, according to TASS news agency.
Witkoff is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin and their discussions are expected to include the war in Ukraine, including the 30-day ceasefire proposal floated in the talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators earlier this week.
Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Russia is open to discuss truce proposal that came out of the US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia earlier this week and the talks may take place as early as today.
Separately, Reuters has reported two sources as saying that Russia has conveyed the list of demands to the United States. While sources did not specify Russia’s demands, they said the demands are broad and similar to demands conveyed previously to the United States, Ukraine, and Nato.
For weeks, the Donald Trump administration of the United States had put all pressure on Ukraine to end the war, falsely accusing the country of starting the war with Russia, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator, and essentially call for his ouster and indicate with covert outreach to his political opponents that it is seeking regime-change in the country, but the ball moved to Russia’s court with Ukraine’s acceptance of partial ceasefire for 30 days.
Following the US-Ukraine talks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Russia’s response to the 30-day truce proposal would clarify whether it wants peace.
“If their response is yes, then we know we’ve made real progress and there’s a real chance of peace. If their response is no, it’ll be highly unfortunate, and it’d make their intentions clear. So that’s what we’re hoping to hear from them,” said Rubio.
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