President Trump on Tuesday announced that US special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to Ukraine as part of the final push toward a peace deal ending Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.
“The original 28-Point Peace Plan, which was drafted by the United States, has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides, and there are only a few remaining points of disagreement,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“In the hopes of finalizing this Peace Plan, I have directed my Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with President [Vladimir] Putin in Moscow and, at the same time, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will be meeting with the Ukrainians.
“I will be briefed on all progress made, along with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles,” Trump said.
“I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelenskyy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages. Thank you for your attention to this very important matter, and let’s all hope that PEACE can be accomplished AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”
Trump had previously set a deadline for a peace deal by Thanksgiving Thursday.
But his controversial 28-point plan drew so much widespread criticism because it overtly favored Russia that the US and Ukraine over the weekend drafted a fresh 19-point cease-fire proposal to replace.
Trump on Tuesday insisted that both sides “are getting really close” to agreeing on a revised peace deal after the hoopla.
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But it remains to be seen how Russia will respond to the new deal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that Moscow would not agree to any deal that strays from the initial 28-point plan.
Lavrov touted the original 28-point plan as what Trump and Putin supposedly agreed to during their Alaska summit in August, which sought to have Ukraine make heavy concessions while asking Russia to barely give up anything at all.
Still, Russia is not likely to out-right reject the new plan out of fear of provoking Trump, with the Kremlin even capable of signing support for the proposal — all while never committing to an actual cease-fire deal, sources told The Post.
Experts have warned that any sort of Russian agreement should be met with skepticism from the Trump administration.
Trump has been wide-eyed about Russia’s efforts to drag out the war, previously accusing Putin of “tapping him along.”
