Witkoff to meet with Putin on Thursday

Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy, has announced that he will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday 22 January. The Kremlin has confirmed this information.

"Well, look, we have to go meet him [Putin – ed.] on Thursday. But it's the Russians who are asking for that meeting. I think that's a significant statement on their part," Witkoff said on CNBC, as quoted by Reuters and Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency RBC.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed this information. "Yes, indeed, such interactions are on the president's schedule for tomorrow," he said. [N.B. European Pravda doesn't recognise Putin as president – ed.]

The Kremlin announced earlier that it was preparing to welcome Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner to Moscow for peace talks on Ukraine, but no date had yet been set.

On 6 January, representatives of 35 countries and organisations met in Paris to finalise security guarantees for Ukraine. Following the meeting, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a declaration of intent to deploy troops in Ukraine if a peace agreement is reached.

On the American side, Witkoff and Kushner attended the meeting.

In addition, Witkoff announced significant progress after the meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in Paris.