High-stakes US push for Ukraine peace meets hard limits in Moscow
White House envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday after a whirlwind weekend of negotiations with Ukraine aimed at securing a peace...
By Fox News · Fox News
White House envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday after a whirlwind weekend of negotiations with Ukraine aimed at securing a peace deal. All eyes are on Putin as Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump ’s son-in-law and occasional foreign policy envoy, feel out whether Putin might agree to the 19-point proposal they finalized with Ukrainian counterparts following initial U.S.-Russian talks. The latest round of diplomacy represents the most active push toward a potential settlement since the full-scale invasion in 2022, but negotiators acknowledge that significant obstacles remain. Core disputes over territory, Ukraine’s long-term security arrangements, and the conditions for any ceasefire are unresolved, and officials say progress will depend on whether Putin shows flexibility during this week’s meetings. After an initial 28-point plan brokered by Witkoff and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev was viewed by Kyiv as too favorable to Moscow, U.S. and Ukrainian officials went back to the drawing board. They met in Geneva at the end of November to work through a trimmed-down version of the plan and again over the weekend in Florida to hammer out additional details. MOMENTUM BUILDS IN UKRAINE PEACE PUSH, BUT EXPERTS FEAR PUTIN WON’T BUDGE Both sides said the talks were productive but offered no specifics on which issues still divide them. "So much work remains," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the meeting. "But today was again a very productive and useful session where I think additional progress was made." "There’s a good chance we can make a deal," Trump said. PUTIN'S A 'LITTLE BIT SCARED' OF TRUMP AS NATIONS BEGIN PEACE TALKS, ZELENSKYY SAYS Despite the momentum, the two sides remain far apart. Several of the most sensitive issues were left for a meeting between principal leaders. Russia insists Ukraine cannot join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — even though Ukraine amended its constitution to…