Russian President Vladimir Putin received US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Stephen Witkoff at the Kremlin on 25 April. This is their fourth face-to-face meeting since February this year.
The fact of the talks between Putin and Witkoff was confirmed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Witkoff flew to Moscow this morning. The White House previously confirmed that Witkoff was due to travel to Russia this week, without naming the exact date. Witkoff’s previous meeting with Putin took place a fortnight ago in Russia’s St Petersburg.
U.S. President Donald Trump says his administration is seeking an early ceasefire in Ukraine and a peace deal and is negotiating with both Russia and Ukraine to do so.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with US broadcaster CBS, excerpts of which were shown the day before, that Moscow is ready for a peace agreement, but some elements need to be “harmonised”.
He did not specify which items he was referring to. Moscow’s official position at the moment is that Ukraine should give up occupied Crimea and four other regions and NATO membership, as well as make other concessions. At the same time, a number of Western mass media quoted sources as saying that Russia might soften its demands and, in particular, agree to halt the conflict on the current front line.
In the same interview, Lavrov called Donald Trump “perhaps the only leader on Earth who has recognised the need to address the root causes” of the conflict in Ukraine. What exactly he means, Lavrov did not explain. Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that during the talks with Russia, the position of the Russian Federation became clearer to the US administration.