US President Donald Trump’s overseas envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Germany this weekend in the latest round of high-level talks on ending
the war with Russia.
Witkoff, who has been leading Trump’s attempts to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, will be discussing the latest version of the proposed peace agreement during his latest meeting. However, it has not been confirmed which European leaders would be attending the meeting.
The Wall Street Journal reported that UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz would be taking part.
According to BBC, the Trump administration is pushing for a deal to be in place by Christmas and has held several rounds of talks with Ukrainian and Russian representatives in recent weeks, though there has been little sign a breakthrough is imminent.
This comes days after Ukraine submitted to the US a revised version of a 20-point peace plan.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Russia launched a massive series of bombardments in the south on Friday.
BBC quoted head of the Odesa region saying civilian facilities including energy and industrial infrastructure, were hit. In one of the strikes, a large fire broke out on a Turkish car ferry anchored at the port city of Odesa.
Russian regional governor Roman Busargin said two people were killed in Saratov after a drone strike hit a residential building.
Previously, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the US wants Ukraine to withdraw its troops from the Donbas region, and Washington would then create a “free economic zone” in the parts Kyiv currently controls.
The US had earlier suggested Kyiv to hand over the parts of Donbas it still controlled, to Russia, but the Ukrainian president said on Thursday that Washington had now suggested a compromise version in which Ukrainian troops would withdraw, but Russian troops would not advance into the territory.
Speaking with journalists in Kyiv on Thursday, the Ukrainian president said, “Who will govern this territory, which they are calling a ‘free economic zone’ or a ‘demilitarised zone’ – they don’t know.”
He further said Ukraine viewed the plan as unfair without assurances that Russian forces wouldn’t simply move in and seize the area after a Ukrainian withdrawal.
Zelenskyy has faced strong pressure from Donald Trump to accept the US peace plan. In recent days, Trump has criticised him, alleging that he “has not even read” the draft proposal and questioning his legitimacy while urging Ukraine to hold an election.
Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Thursday, “The president is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war, and he is sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting.”
