Russia open to further contact with Trump’s envoys – Lavrov
Moscow is open to further contact with US President Donald Trump’s senior envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Lavrov noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already met with Witkoff six times. “I am sure that if they express... interest [for another meeting], then this interest will be met with understanding,” he added.
Also on Wednesday, Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, claimed that Witkoff and Kushner expect to meet with the Russian president, possibly by the end of the month. According to the publication, the plans have yet to be finalized. If the talks take place, Witkoff and Kushner will present Washington’s latest draft plans for settling the Ukraine conflict to Putin, it added.
Trump’s senior negotiators last visited Moscow in early December 2025. Later that month, Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Miami. Both sides characterized the talks as “constructive.”
US negotiators concurrently held a separate round of talks with Kiev’s representatives and officials from several European countries in Florida.
US-mediated efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict have intensified in recent months, after Trump’s initial peace plan was leaked to the media in November 2025. The roadmap reportedly envisaged Kiev ceding the remainder of Donbass to Moscow, as well as renouncing its NATO membership aspirations and capping the size of its military, among other points.
Last month, Ukraine and its European backers presented a 20-point counter-proposal, which has significantly watered down or distorted the original US-drafted proposal.
In late December, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stressed that the framework promoted by Vladimir Zelensky “is radically different… from the 27-point [proposal] we were working on with the US side.” He noted that Moscow is still “fully ready” to resolve the Ukraine conflict as long as its core security concerns are addressed.
