War in Ukraine: American envoy Steve Witkoff plans to meet Volodymyr Zelensky then Vladimir Putin this week

The media outlet Axios reported Monday evening that US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff was traveling to Europe to meet separately with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia this week. The discussions with Volodymyr Zelensky “will bring together Ukraine, European allies and the United States as they seek to develop a peace proposal to present to Russia,” says the site, which relies on an anonymous American official.

Steve Witkoff is due to go to Oslo to meet Tuesday with Volodymyr Zelensky and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, as well as representatives of several European countries (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland) and even NATO, this source told Axios. The American envoy must then head to Russia “where he hopes to meet President Vladimir Putin and present ideas to him,” according to this official. The White House did not immediately respond to AFP to confirm this trip to Europe.

“We hope for a meeting in the near future”

Moscow, for its part, hopes for an upcoming meeting with Washington's emissaries, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. “We hope that it will be possible to organize a meeting in the near future and that the American negotiators - Mr. Witkoff - will be able to inform President Putin about their contacts with both the Ukrainians and the Europeans,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Dimitri Peskov added that such a meeting would also allow “the exchange of signals between Washington and Moscow on a number of very important issues”.