Russia is expecting a U.S. delegation in Moscow next week, led by special envoy Steve Witkoff, to discuss the U.S. proposal for a peace deal that President Vladimir Putin called a “basis for future agreements.”
His comment Thursday suggested a degree of openness to President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The original 28-point plan was modified in U.S.-Ukrainian negotiations in Geneva last weekend to make it more palatable to Kyiv.
“In general, we agree that this could form the basis for future agreements, but it would be rude of me to talk about any final versions now, since there are none. Some things are fundamental in nature, and in general we see that the American side is taking into account our position, which was discussed before Anchorage and after Alaska,” Putin said at a security summit in Kyrgyzstan.
He said in a news conference that “as we have previously agreed, the meeting is being offered by the U.S. side in Moscow next week.” He said he expected Witkoff to be there.
Putin’s statement comes more than a week after the full 28-point plan was leaked to the news media, unsettling Kyiv and several European governments, which view parts of the document as overly favorable to Moscow. Subsequent counterproposals from European leaders and Ukraine reduced the plan to 19 points.
Putin added that Russia is ready “to sit down and seriously discuss specific issues,” but he indicated that Moscow sees little point in signing documents with Ukraine’s current leadership. He repeated a common Kremlin claim that President Volodymyr Zelensky lost legitimacy by not holding elections last year, even though elections are legally suspended under martial law.
“The Kremlin wants an official, written text with clear status that it can work from. For now, it is simply waiting,” said Tatyana Stanovaya, an expert at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “I see nothing at the moment that would force Putin to recalculate his goals or abandon his core demands. … He feels more confident than ever about the battlefield situation and is convinced that he can wait until Kyiv finally accepts that it cannot win and must negotiate on Russia’s well-known terms.”
Russia expects Ukrainian forces to withdraw from all of the Donbas region despite the fierce fighting still underway there. Putin said if Ukraine retreats from the areas Russia claims, then “we will cease hostilities; if they do not, we will achieve our goals by military means.”
In his remarks, Putin also defended Witkoff after leaks surfaced purporting to show him advising top Russian foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov on how to negotiate more effectively with Trump regarding a peace deal.
“Who is attacking Mr. Witkoff? Those are the representatives of the alternative point of view who together want to steal money with Ukrainian establishment and continue fighting until the last Ukrainian.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said Kyiv expects concrete progress from its upcoming talks with the U.S. team, as Zelensky plans to visit the U.S. to finalize the peace agreement.
Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said that the Ukrainian delegation plans to meet with its U.S. counterparts at the end of this week despite the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.
“Our key shared goal remains unchanged — achieving a lasting and dignified peace for Ukraine ASAP. Just as we did in Geneva, we are now preparing for a constructive dialogue to make tangible progress in defining the steps to end the war,” Yermak said in a post on social media.
Serhiy Morgunov contributed to this report.
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