Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting on the development of the “new region” annexed from Ukraine at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, June 30, 2025.
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All eyes are now on Russia’s reaction to the nascent peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, after Kyiv signaled its intention to move forward with a U.S. aid framework.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is scheduled to travel to Moscow next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s close aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting “will discuss the content (of the U.S. plan),” insisting that Russian officials did not discuss any U.S.-backed plans during a meeting with U.S. officials in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
“We on the Russian side have not yet specifically discussed the document with anyone… We have agreed to a meeting with Mr. Witkov. We hope that he will not be alone. Other representatives of the U.S. team working on the Ukraine document will also participate,” he said in comments translated by NBC News and reported by state news agency TASS.
Ushakov said Russia had not yet formally received the U.S.-backed draft agreement for Ukraine, but had seen an unofficial version.
Ushakov said the Kremlin is positive about some aspects of the plan he has seen so far, but “some aspects require serious analysis.”
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in comments reported by Reuters on Wednesday that while Russia welcomes U.S. efforts on the peace plan, there will be “no concessions on important issues regarding Ukraine reconciliation.”
Earlier today, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned against jumping to conclusions about ending the war that Russia started when it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“Wait, it’s too early to say that,” Peskov told reporters when asked if Russia and Ukraine were the closest ever to a peace deal, according to state news agency TASS.
CNBC has contacted the Kremlin for further comment and is awaiting a response.
Ukraine also participates tentatively
A Ukrainian delegation that met with U.S. officials in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday appeared to tentatively endorse the basics of a U.S.-backed peace plan, although key details remained unresolved, multiple media outlets reported on Tuesday.
Both ABC News and CBS News reports cited unnamed U.S. officials who said Ukraine had “agreed” to the deal, but noted that some points still needed to be resolved. It is not clear whether the same U.S. official is quoted in both articles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Tuesday that Kiev was ready to move forward with the peace framework, Reuters reported, citing a copy of a speech he gave to a coalition of allies.
“I think we’re very close to a deal. We’ll see…I think we’re making progress,” President Donald Trump said at the White House on Tuesday.
“Slight disagreements remain,” Trump said in a Truth Social post late Tuesday afternoon.
back-to-back talks
Trump’s post came days after U.S. officials met with the Ukrainian delegation in Geneva over the weekend, leading to major revisions to the 28-point peace plan originally presented by Washington.
The plan was widely seen as highly advantageous to the invading force, Russia, but was “tweaked with additional input from both sides,” Trump acknowledged in a post Tuesday.
“Our delegations reached a common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva,” Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s head of state security, told XPost.
It is by no means certain that Russia will agree to the revised peace plan, reportedly narrowed down to 19 points.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said any agreement must reflect the understanding reached at the Alaska summit between Trump and Putin in August.
On Tuesday, officials from Kiev and Moscow reportedly met with Driscoll in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.
The Kremlin has been tight-lipped about the discussions taking place there, with Dmitry Peskov telling reporters on Tuesday that there was “nothing to say yet” and that the Kremlin was “monitoring media reports.”
“We understand that negotiations between the United States and Ukraine are ongoing. We understand that some adjustments have been made to the published document. We understand that changes have already been made to the document that we previously received privately, but at some point there will probably come a time when we will also establish contact with the American side and formally receive some information,” Peskov said. “There is no new information at this time.”
The original 28-point plan, which did not involve Ukraine, included controversial provisions such as territorial concessions by Ukraine in exchange for handing over eastern Donbass, which is partially occupied by Russian forces.
The original agreement also called for Ukraine to reduce its military by 50%, among other proposals that would cross Ukraine’s “no-crossing line.”
President Trump has urged Ukraine to accept the deal by the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 27, prompting President Zelensky to declare on Friday that Ukraine faces a difficult choice: “Either you lose your dignity or you lose an important partner,” referring to the United States.
That deadline appears to have been scrapped. It is unclear how many points from the original agreement remain in the latest possible peace deal.
