Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting on the development of ‘new territories’ annexed from Ukraine at the Kremlin on June 30, 2025 in Moscow, Russia.
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All eyes are now on Russia’s response to a new peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. Looks ready to move forward with a supported framework.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Moscow next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting would “discuss the content (of the US plan),” and claimed that Russian officials did not discuss the US-backed plan when they met with US officials in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
“We, the Russian side, have not yet discussed any documents specifically with anyone… We have agreed to a meeting with Mr. Witkoff. I hope he will not be alone. Other representatives of the US team working on the Ukrainian dossier will be there,” he said in comments translated by NBC News. Reported by state news agency TASS.
Ushakov said Russia had not yet officially received the US-backed draft deal for Ukraine but had seen an unofficial version.
Regarding the plan as he sees it, Ushakov said the Kremlin views some aspects of the plan positively while “some of its issues require serious analysis.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow welcomed U.S. efforts on peace proposals but said there would be “no concessions on key issues on the Ukraine settlement,” in comments reported by Reuters on Wednesday.
Earlier today, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov warned against jumping to conclusions regarding the end of the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“Wait. It’s too early to say,” Peskov told reporters. State news agency TASS reportedWhen asked if this is the closest Russia and Ukraine have ever come to a peace agreement.
CNBC has reached out to the Kremlin for further comment and is awaiting a response.
Ukraine on board, temporary
Multiple outlets reported on Tuesday that a Ukrainian delegation that held talks with US officials in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday appeared to tentatively support the premise of a US-backed peace plan – although key details remained unresolved.
Reports from ABC News And CBS News Both cited an unnamed US official who said the Ukrainians had “agreed” to the deal, while noting that some issues still needed to be ironed out. It was not clear whether the same US official was quoted in both stories.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky Later on Tuesday, Kiev said it was ready to advance the peace process. Reuters reportedCiting a copy of the President’s speech to the Coalition of Allies.
President Donald Trump “I think we’re getting very close to a deal. We’re going to find out … I think we’re making progress,” he said at the White House on Tuesday.
In A Truth social post “There are only a few points of disagreement left,” Trump said Tuesday afternoon.
Emergence of talk
Trump’s post comes several days after US officials met with a Ukrainian delegation in Geneva late last week for talks that resulted in significant revisions to the 28-point peace plan initially offered by Washington.
That plan — which was widely seen as highly favorable to Russia, the aggressor — “has been fine-tuned with additional input from both sides,” Trump acknowledged in a Tuesday post.
“Our delegations reached a common understanding on the main terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva,” said Ukrainian National Security Secretary Rustem Umerov. X said in the post.
It is not certain that Russia will agree to the revised peace plan, which has reportedly been narrowed down to 19 points.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said any agreement should reflect the agreement reached by Trump and Putin in August. Summit in Alaska.
On Tuesday, officials from Kiev and Moscow report Met with Driscoll in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The Kremlin has been tight-lipped about the discussions taking place there, with Dmitry Peskov telling reporters on Tuesday that “we still have nothing to say” and that the Kremlin is “monitoring media reports.”
“We understand that negotiations between the Americans and the Ukrainians are ongoing. We understand that some adjustments are being made to the text that was published; we understand that there have already been changes to the text that we received unofficially earlier, but at some point, maybe there will be a time when we will also establish contacts with the Americans and we will officially receive some information,” Peskov said. “For now, we have no new information.”
The initial, 28-point plan, in which Ukraine did not participate, included controversial terms, such as territorial concessions by Ukraine ceding the eastern Donbass region that is partially occupied by Russian forces.
The original deal also calls for Ukraine to cut its army by 50%, among other proposals that cross Ukraine’s “red lines”.
Trump pressed Ukraine to accept that deal through the US Thanksgiving Day holiday on November 27, prompting Zelensky to declare on Friday that Ukraine faced a difficult choice between “losing its dignity or losing a key partner”.
That deadline appears to have been scrapped. It was unclear how many points of the original deal remained in the latest version of the potential peace deal.
– CNBC Kevin Bruninger Contributed to the reporting of this story.
