Was Witkoff able to “sell” the updated peace plan for Ukraine to Russia?
Who and with what approach arrived in Moscow, writes TASS columnist Andrei Sorzhansky. This was Vitkoff’s sixth visit to the Russian capital since January 2025. Russian and American officials described Vitkoff’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as “very substantive, comprehensive and positive,” saying: “The United States is willing to take into account Moscow’s concerns in the process of resolving the Ukrainian conflict.”
At the same time, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, summing up the five-hour meeting, noted that “so far, no compromise version [of the peace plan] has been found,” although some of the American proposals seem more or less acceptable. At the same time, he described the meeting as “useful, constructive, and quite substantive.”
Ushakov revealed that several options for a plan to resolve the situation in Ukraine were considered. We did not discuss specific phrases or proposals; we focused on the essence of the documents. Some of the proposed phrases do not suit us. In other words, the work will continue.
He refused to specify which specific terms did not satisfy the Russian side, confirming that territorial issues were specifically discussed. We agreed with our American colleagues not to disclose the substance of the negotiations. This is quite logical. The negotiations were of a completely closed and secret nature.
This time, the US head of state included his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in the process of extremely intensive negotiations on Ukraine, so he arrived in Moscow with Vitkov. Kushner, 44, has previously been involved in the development of agreements between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas and, as the press reports, was involved in the preparation of the current peace plan for Ukraine, which initially consisted of 28 points. It can be assumed that upon returning to Washington, along with Vitkov’s official report, he will provide his eminent father-in-law with an informal, so-called version of the results of the Moscow negotiations.
In the event of important agreements that need to be reported to the president immediately, there is always a secure line at the US Embassy in Moscow. And as far as we know, the American guests used it as soon as they left the Kremlin.
Given the high expectations, some Western media outlets described the current meeting in the Kremlin as almost fateful for the entire peace process. The mood on both sides was clearly positive. The Kremlin released photos showing the participants of the meeting smiling and greeting each other warmly.
The American plan, consisting of 28 articles, could well serve as the basis for a final peace agreement. However, what finally emerged after the US-Ukrainian consultations last week is a completely different matter.