Trump sends envoys to see Putin, Ukrainians

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his plan to end the conflict in Ukraine has been "fine-tuned" and he is sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials.

He suggested he could eventually meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but not until further progress has been made in negotiations.

"I will be briefed on all progress made, along with Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles," Trump said in a social media posting.

"I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelensky and President Putin soon, but only when the deal to end this war is final or, in its final stages."

Trump spoke after Driscoll held talks late on Monday and throughout Tuesday with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, to discuss the emerging proposal.

"The talks are going well and we remain optimistic," Jeff Tolbert, spokesman for the Army Secretary, said in a statement.

As the talks were taking place, Russia launched a wave of overnight attacks on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, with at least seven people killed in the strikes. A Ukrainian attack on southern Russia killed three people and damaged homes, authorities said.

Still, Trump expressed a measure of optimism that his administration's diplomatic efforts could soon lead to a breakthrough.

The Kremlin confirmed Witkoff's visit on Wednesday. "A preliminary agreement has been reached on (Witkoff's) visit to Moscow next week," Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Russian TV.

Meanwhile, Ushakov stressed on Wednesday that the latest US peace plan required "serious analysis" by Moscow and had not been discussed between US and Russian officials at a meeting in Abu Dhabi.

Ushakov said representatives of Russia's intelligence services had been in the Gulf city to meet their Ukrainian counterparts and discuss "very sensitive issues", including prisoner exchanges.

Ushakov said the meeting with the US official had been unexpected, and that the latest plan had not been discussed. He did not say what they had actually talked about.

"No, the peace plan was not discussed in Abu Dhabi. The peace plan has not yet been discussed in detail with anyone," Ushakov told Russian state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin.

Deeper agreements

In Ukraine, Zelensky said on Tuesday that the peace plan prepared by Ukraine and the United States in Geneva could be developed into "deeper agreements".

In an address, Zelensky said he had discussed the plan with Ukraine's negotiating team. "The principles in this document can be developed into deeper agreements. And it is in our shared interest that security is real," he said.

Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine's presidential office, earlier said Ukrainian and US negotiators reached an agreement in principle on most aspects of the plan, noting the document was significantly modified from the original 28-point US proposal.

Oleksandr Bevz, one of the Ukrainian delegates at the Geneva talks, however, cautioned that it was "very premature to say that something is agreed upon".

In an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv late on Tuesday, he declined to discuss the specifics of any amendments to Trump's plan, but said the US was aware that the strength of security guarantees for Ukraine would "define the sustainability of the deal" and was "the part making this deal real and enforceable".

Trump's plan for ending the nearly four-year conflict emerged last week. European leaders, fearing for their own future facing Russian aggression but apparently sidelined by Trump in drawing up the proposal, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that France and Britain will launch a workshop to coordinate security guarantees for Ukraine with the involvement of the US.

He made the remarks after a video-conference of about 30 countries in the "Coalition of the Willing", joined by Zelensky and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Macron said the coming days would be used to define the contributions of the parties ready to provide guarantees once a ceasefire is reached.

France and other European Union members are also working on a plan to provide financial support for Ukraine, Macron said.

Agencies - Xinhua