Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, in Moscow late on Thursday and now expects to talk to President Donald Trump about a possible ceasefire in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters on Friday that there was “certainly” reason to feel “cautious optimism” about the prospects for a settlement to the war, after a flurry of diplomacy in recent days. He was echoing similarly optimistic remarks made by Michael Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, late on Thursday.
The comments from Peskov signalled that Russia was eager to keep negotiating with the US over Ukraine.
On Thursday, before the meeting with Witkoff, Putin showed that he was in no hurry to accept the offer of a 30-day truce made by Ukraine and the US this week. Putin told a news conference that he was open to the proposal, but suggested that he would seek to negotiate over a slew of issues — such as western weapons deliveries to Ukraine — that could delay any deal or make it impossible.
Peskov said on Friday that Witkoff had “presented additional information to the Russian side” and that Putin “passed along information and additional signals for President Trump”. But Peskov suggested that the outcome of the diplomatic back-and-forth would only become clear after Witkoff had briefed Trump, and after the Russian and American leaders had spoken by phone. Peskov added that the timing of a Trump-Putin call was yet to be determined. They last known to have spoken on February 12.
“After Witkoff passes along all of the information he received in Moscow to his head of state — we’ll determine the timing of the conversation after that,” Peskov said. “There’s an understanding on both sides that such a conversation is necessary.”
Peskov’s comments were the latest indication that Putin is seemingly trying to balance a desire to avoid upsetting Trump with his effort to force wide-ranging concessions from the West and from Ukraine. While Trump says he wants to end the war as quickly as possible, Putin appears confident that he has time on his side.
There was no immediate comment from Witkoff or from the broader Trump administration about the meeting with Putin. Witkoff, who is officially the President’s West Asia envoy, has also taken on a key role as an interlocutor with Russia — spending three hours meeting with Putin last month as he finalized a prisoner exchange between Russia and the US.
Ukraine has already agreed to support the US-backed ceasefire proposal, but only if Russia does the same. On Thursday, President Zelensky of Ukraine said that Putin in his news conference had set so many conditions “that nothing will work out at all or that it will not work out for as long as possible”.
New York Times News Service