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Morning opening: Witkoff in Moscow
US peace envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Moscow today for further talks with Russia, including president Vladimir Putin, on Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine.
Hoping to get results before Trump’s 100 days in the office next week, Witkoff will have to find a way to convey the sense of the president’s frustration with the Russian attack on Kyiv on Thursday, while hoping to make good progress as Washington tries to put pressure on Kyiv to agree to its proposal.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told CBS News that Russia was “ready to reach a deal, but there are still some specific points … which need to be fine-tuned, and we are busy with this,” as he praised Trump for being “probably the only leader on Earth who recognised the need to address the root causes of this situation.”
But there are still big sticking points, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeatedly refusing to give up on any of the Russian occupied territory including the strategically located Crimea.
On Thursday, he explained that “we do everything that our partners have proposed; only what contradicts our legislation and the constitution we cannot do.”
And the Ukrainian president has powerful allies in European leaders like Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron and in Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, who said on Thursday that it was Moscow, not Kyiv, that needed to move forward in negotiations.
Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson also criticised the proposed deal, saying Ukraine “gets nothing” under the terms offered by Trump – although the US president insisted last night that Russia “stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country” is a “pretty big concession.”
It’s Friday, 25 April 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
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Three dead, 10 injured in Russian drone attack on Ukraine
Witkoff’s visit – second this month and fourth since January – comes after another night of Russian attacks on Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials reported that a Russian drone has struck an apartment building in a southeastern Ukraine city, killing three people and injuring 10 others, AP reported.
Among the civilians killed in the night-time drone strike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, were a child and a 76-year-old woman, the head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.
Russian forces fired 103 Shahed and decoy drones at five Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s air force reported.
Witkoff arrives in Moscow
And the Interfax news agency has now reported that Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow, where he is expected to meet Vladimir Putin.
Reuters noted that Witkoff has emerged as Washington’s key interlocutor with Putin as Trump pushes for a deal to end the war in Ukraine, and has already held three long meetings with the Kremlin leader.
Morning opening: Witkoff in Moscow
US peace envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Moscow today for further talks with Russia, including president Vladimir Putin, on Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine.
Hoping to get results before Trump’s 100 days in the office next week, Witkoff will have to find a way to convey the sense of the president’s frustration with the Russian attack on Kyiv on Thursday, while hoping to make good progress as Washington tries to put pressure on Kyiv to agree to its proposal.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told CBS News that Russia was “ready to reach a deal, but there are still some specific points … which need to be fine-tuned, and we are busy with this,” as he praised Trump for being “probably the only leader on Earth who recognised the need to address the root causes of this situation.”
But there are still big sticking points, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeatedly refusing to give up on any of the Russian occupied territory including the strategically located Crimea.
On Thursday, he explained that “we do everything that our partners have proposed; only what contradicts our legislation and the constitution we cannot do.”
And the Ukrainian president has powerful allies in European leaders like Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron and in Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, who said on Thursday that it was Moscow, not Kyiv, that needed to move forward in negotiations.
Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson also criticised the proposed deal, saying Ukraine “gets nothing” under the terms offered by Trump – although the US president insisted last night that Russia “stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country” is a “pretty big concession.”
It’s Friday, 25 April 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
