Donald Trump (AP image)
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “fine-tuned” and he’s sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and army secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials. He suggested he could eventually meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but not until further progress has been made in negotiations. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening aboard Air Force One, Trump said resolving the war was difficult, and described what had been a 28-point plan as a work in progress. “That was not a plan – it was a concept,” Trump said.On Wednesday, a Russian diplomat said the Kremlin won’t make big concessions on the peace plan, after a leaked recording of a call involving Witkoff showed he had advised Moscow on how to pitch to Trump. While Trump said that progress was being made and Moscow was making concessions, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said, “There can be no question of any concessions, or any surrender of our approaches to those key points.” Moscow also raised concerns about the leak to Bloomberg News of the transcript of a call between Witkoff and Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov. Trump, on Air Force One, brushed aside a question from a reporter about why Witkoff appeared to be coaching Russian officials as simply “what a dealmaker does” and “a very standard form of negotiation”. But Russia said the leak was an unacceptable attempt to undermine peace efforts and amounted to hybrid warfare.European countries, which are alarmed by Russia’s aggression and see their own future at stake in negotiations over Ukraine, are fighting to make their voices heard in the talks as Washington takes the lead.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday that Europe wants the war to end as quickly as possible. “But an agreement negotiated by great powers without the approval of the Ukrainians and without the approval of the Europeans won’t be a basis for a real, sustainable peace in Ukraine,” Merz told lawmakers in Berlin. “Europe is not a plaything, but a sovereign actor for its own interests and values.”The head of the European Union’s executive, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, was upbeat about recent developments, saying there is “an opportunity here to make real progress” toward peace.She insisted that any settlement must include future security guarantees for Ukraine. Von der Leyen added that a deal can’t contain limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces or block its path to Nato membership. Agencies