The US presidential administration plans to hold another meeting between the US leader's special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff and the Russian side, CNN reports, citing an official familiar with the progress of the negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the situation in Ukraine.
„The Trump administration, simultaneously with the meeting with representatives of Europe and Kiev in London, plans another meeting between the special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Russia to get Moscow's agreement on his proposal“, the statement said.
According to the TV channel's source, one of the topics of the upcoming meeting in London will be a peace agreement, which may include the recognition of Crimea as Russian by the United States.
Earlier on Saturday, Bloomberg reported, citing a source, that the United States is ready to recognize Russian control over Crimea as part of a broader peace agreement between Moscow and Kiev. It is noted that Washington has not yet made a final decision on this issue.
The last meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Witkoff was held on April 11 in St. Petersburg and lasted about four and a half hours. According to the Russian leader's aide, Yuri Ushakov, the main topic of discussion was the situation around Ukraine, but other political and economic issues were also raised. A little later, he expressed the opinion that Washington had already discussed Russia's signals for resolving the conflict, transmitted through the US President's special envoy.
After the talks, Witkoff himself said that there is a possibility that we may find ourselves "on the verge of something that will be very important for the world in a global sense". According to him, this process goes beyond the "so-called five territories" - it could be about security guarantees and abandoning plans to admit Ukraine into NATO.