Dmitriev travels to US for fresh talks with Trump administration
The trip follows Rubio's meeting with Lavrov in New York on Wednesday and comes as the Kremlin says conditions for peace talks are not yet ready
Published
Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev is heading to the United States for new talks with Trump administration officials, according to sources.
The trip builds on a meeting earlier Wednesday in New York, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss a possible ceasefire. Rubio said afterward that both Russia and Ukraine want a ceasefire covering grain and energy infrastructure.
The diplomatic track remains far from a breakthrough. The Kremlin has said conditions for Ukraine peace talks are not yet ready, and that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy could visit Moscow only after key decisions are made, with no high-level meetings yet scheduled. Zelensky said Putin again vowed to seize Donetsk in a message to American representatives hours after the Rubio-Lavrov meeting, calling it the 17th or 18th time Putin has made that pledge. Putin himself told servicemen that Russia's military goals in Ukraine will be achieved, even as Moscow and Washington continue talking past each other on peace terms.
Dmitriev's trip signals that the Trump administration is actively engaging Russia on potential settlement terms, extending the contacts opened by the Rubio-Lavrov meeting. But with the Kremlin setting conditions it says are not yet met and demanding a Zelensky visit only after an agreement is reached, any breakthrough looks distant. The trip keeps the door open for talks without changing the immediate military or diplomatic trajectory.