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Trump’s envoy leaves for Moscow after Trump says ‘reasonably close’ to a deal to end war in Ukraine
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Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has said he is travelling to Moscow later today to meet the Russian president Vladimir Putin and discuss an end to the war in Ukraine.
“I think we’ve made a lot of progress,” Witkoff said, adding that negotiations were down to one last issue. “So if both sides want to solve this, we’re going to get it solved,” Witkoff told an audience in Davos.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky appears set to travel to Switzerland to meet Donald Trump after all, just days after he said he would be giving the World Economic Forum in Davos a miss.
Speaking at the WEF, Trump said he thought “we’re reasonably close” to a deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done. And if they don’t, they’re stupid,” he said, referring to the Russian and Ukrainian leaders. Delegations from the two countries have already held meetings this week at the Swiss resort town
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has said the alliance should prioritise Ukraine and not Greenland as the US president builds cross-Atlantic pressure on the Danish territory.
Speaking at a panel session at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Rutte said: “On Greenland, we have to make sure that that issue gets solved in an amicable way. But the main issue is not Greenland. Now, the main issue is Ukraine.”
Rutte said that he “worried that we might drop the ball focusing so much on these other issues.”
“Focus on Ukraine should be our number one priority, and then we can discuss all the issues, including Greenland,” Rutte said. “But it should be Ukraine first, because it is crucial for our European and US security,” he said, adding that public disputes can affect diplomatic process.
The Nato chief added that he was working “behind the scenes” to diffuse disagreements between the European Union and the US over Greenland, which Trump has claimed he wants to capture.
Top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov said he met US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Swiss resort of Davos.
Umerov said the meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum focused on security guarantees for Ukraine and a post-war recovery plan.
Umerov said a Ukrainian delegation had also met representatives of the US investment firm Blackrock, which is involved in rebuilding plans.
US president Donald Trump said Russian president Vladimir Putin has accepted his invitation to join Trump’s Board of Peace initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts, a statement that Putin quickly countered, saying that the invitation was only under consideration.
“He was invited. He’s accepted,” Trump told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland after meeting with Nato chief Mark Rutte.
Shortly after, Putin said Russia’s foreign ministry had been instructed to study Trump’s invitation to join his proposed Board of Peace and would reply in due course.
Putin said he saw the proposal mainly as part of efforts to deal with a Middle East peace settlement.
Even before any decision on joining the Board, Putin said Moscow was ready to provide $1bn – as required by Trump for long-term membership – “in view of Russia’s special relations with the Palestinian people”.
But he said this must be taken from the Russian assets frozen in Europe after his invasion of Ukraine.
The United States remains committed to Ukraine, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
On being asked if US president Donald Trump showed commitment to Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty, Rutte said: “Yes! And I have never doubted this.”
“What we need is to keep our eyes on the ball of Ukraine. Let’s not drop that ball,” he said.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky appears set to travel to Switzerland to meet Donald Trump after all, having said earlier that he would be giving the World Economic Forum a miss.
Zelensky had said he “choose[s] Ukraine” and would stay home to help deal with the aftermath of repeated Russian airstrikes on Kyiv.
But on Wednesday Trump said he would be sitting down with Zelensky later the same day – even though the Ukrainian president wasn’t in the same country.
US officials said he had misspoken; they say a meeting is indeed on the cards but that it will now take place on Thursday.
Around 3,000 apartment buildings were still without heating in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv following a Russian air attack this week, mayor Vitali Klitschko said this morning.
“As of this morning, just under 3,000 high-rise buildings in the capital remain without heating,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Klitschko added that 270 buildings were re-connected to the supply overnight.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has said he will discuss a possible peace plan for Ukraine with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Moscow today.
Trump said yesterday that a deal to end the war was “reasonably close”.
The United States has held talks with Russia, and separately with Kyiv and European leaders, on various different drafts of a plan for ending the war in Ukraine, but no deal has yet been reached despite Trump’s repeated promises to clinch one.
Putin, speaking at a Russian Security Council meeting late last night, said that he would meet Trump special envoy Witkoff and Kushner in Moscow to “continue dialogue on the Ukrainian settlement” as well as Trump’s “Board of Peace” idea.
At stake is how to end the deadliest war in Europe since the Second World War, the future of Ukraine, the extent to which European powers are sidelined and whether or not a peace deal brokered by the United States will endure.
Now deep into what might be called his anecdotage, Donald Trump couldn’t help himself in delivering his usual repertoire of supposedly entertaining and inspirational stories to a bemused captive audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Then just hours later, he performed a surprise U-turn and abandoned his latest tariff threat against Europe entirely, after reaching the “framework of a future deal” with Nato. One wonders if all the dramatics were worth it.
In any case, the president found time in his lengthy address to mention the war in Ukraine – a real and bloody conflict, in sharp contrast to the improbable one in Greenland. Specifically, the president made reference to the tens of thousands of soldiers who are still being slaughtered every week as Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” approaches the end of its fourth year.
A Ukrainian drone attack has sparked a fire at a port terminal in Russia’s Krasnodar region, a local task force said this morning.The fire has now been put out, they said.
The authorities said late on Wednesday that at least three people had been killed and eight injured as a result of the Ukrainian attack. The drones also hit four tanks containing oil products, setting them ablaze.
The Russian defence ministry said that air defence units had downed 31 Ukrainian drones overnight.
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