Russia under pressure as Ukraine peace talks shift to Moscow

All eyes are on Russia this week as talks over a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine shift to Moscow and step up a gear.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is travelling to Russia on Monday and is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for discussions on a U.S.-backed 19-point peace plan.

Ukraine has tentatively supported the fledgling peace proposals, putting the ball back in Russia’s court as to whether it too can work with the framework agreement.

The latest plan is an amended version of an initial 28-point plan, reported several weeks ago, that had been devised by the U.S. and Moscow without Ukraine’s involvement, and which favored Russia.

Russia will be eager to have its say on the amended proposals after a flurry of diplomacy and discussions between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in the last week and talks being in Florida on Sunday.

Whether Putin will play ball when it comes to a new peace plan is a big unknown, however, with Russia feeling like it has both the advantage on the battlefield and U.S. President Donald Trump’s ear when it comes to the outlines of a future peace deal.

The Kremlin confirmed that Witkoff and Putin will meet on Tuesday.

Putin and Kremlin officials have reacted cautiously to the amended peace plan so far, signalling that Russia is ready to talk but that the war in Ukraine might not necessarily end soon.

“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said during a trip to Kyrgyzstan. He added that the U.S. appeared to be taking Russia’s position on a peace settlement “into account” and that Moscow was ready for “serious discussions” with Witkoff.

But Putin also praised Russian advances in Ukraine and told reporters that the fighting there would only stop when Ukrainian troops withdraw from their positions in key areas.

If they did not do so, Putin said, Russian forces would achieve their objectives by force, appearing to suggest that Moscow was not willing to give up one of its key objectives of having full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War noted in analysis on Sunday that Russian military bloggers appear skeptical that Putin will compromise when it comes to his territorial demands on Ukraine.

“Russian information space voices continue to argue that the Kremlin will likely reject a ceasefire or any iteration of the U.S.-proposed peace plan because the Kremlin views these efforts as inconsequential and as a hindrance to Russia’s goals in Ukraine and globally,” ISW analysts noted Sunday.

The lead up to the latest diplomatic scramble for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia comes after some seesawing from the White House over its position on how the war should end and what concessions are needed in order for a ceasefire.

President Trump has vacillated over his support for Ukraine and has appeared, at times, to support Russia’s demands that Ukraine cede occupied territory to Moscow as part of a peace deal. He has then backtracked, stating that Kyiv’s forces can win back all their land, muddying the waters as to where het stands on a peace settlement.

Following talks with Ukrainian officials in Florida on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the process toward a peace deal was “delicate” and that Russia’s position needed to be factored in to any deal.

He said the four-hour long talks — which included Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as a Ukrainian delegation headed by National Security and Defense Council Secretary Ustem Rumerov — had been productive but that more work was left to be done.

“So much work remains, but today was, again, a very productive and useful session where I think additional progress was made,” Rubio told reporters after the talks.