WASHINGTON, March 13 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- The United States (US) President Donald Trump's special envoy for the Middle East will travel to Moscow "later this week" for talks with Russian officials on a ceasefire proposal that would halt the war in Ukraine for 30 days, the White House confirmed on Wednesday.
Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported that spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said National Security Adviser Mike Waltz spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart earlier on Wednesday, emphasising that President Donald Trump's "team continues to be engaged" with their Russian counterparts ahead of Steve Witkoff’s visit.
Leavitt did not specify the day Witkoff would arrive, nor whom he planned to sit down with, but she urged Moscow to adopt the ceasefire proposal.
"We urge the Russians to sign on to this plan. This is the closest we have been to peace in this war. We are at the 10-yard line and the president expects the Russians to help us run this into the end zone," Leavitt told reporters, using an American football analogy to emphasise that the agreement is nearly complete and needs Russia's support to be realised.
Witkoff has played an increasingly large role in the Trump administration beyond the purview associated with his title, previously working on a deal that freed American Marc Fogel, who was detained in Russia for more than three years.
Ukraine accepted the 30-day truce put forward by Washington, which Trump has called a "total ceasefire," on Tuesday following talks with a US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Waltz in Saudi Arabia.
A joint statement issued after the meeting omitted "security guarantees," essentially a commitment from the US to step in if Russia violated the ceasefire, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a late-night video message that they were discussed during the meeting.
Zelenskyy said the US and Ukraine will talk about security guarantees in greater detail if a ceasefire is implemented.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump threatened to impose "devastating" economic penalties on Russia if President Vladimir Putin rejects the deal, whose fate Trump said is in the Kremlin's hands.
"There are things you can do that wouldn’t be pleasant in a financial sense. I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don't want to do that, because I want to get peace," he said. "We're getting close to maybe getting something done.
-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU
