Kremlin Confirms US Envoy's Visit      11/26 06:06

   A senior Kremlin official confirmed Wednesday that U.S. special envoy Steve 
Witkoff is set to visit Moscow next week as efforts to find a consensus on 
ending the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine pick up speed.

   (AP) -- A senior Kremlin official confirmed Wednesday that U.S. special 
envoy Steve Witkoff is set to visit Moscow next week as efforts to find a 
consensus on ending the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine pick up 
speed.

   But Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs 
adviser, insisted that Kremlin officials still have not seen a U.S. peace 
proposal, even though representatives of the United States, Russia and Ukraine 
held talks in Abu Dhabi earlier this week.

   "Contact is ongoing, including via telephone, but no one has yet sat down at 
a round table and discussed this point-by-point. That hasn't happened," Ushakov 
told Russian state media.

   Ukrainian officials didn't confirm whether U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, 
who in recent weeks has played a high-profile role in the peace efforts, would 
be in Kyiv in the coming days, as Trump indicated Tuesday.

   Trump's plan for ending the war became public last week, setting off a spate 
of diplomatic maneuvering. The initial version appeared heavily slanted toward 
Russian demands for halting its invasion of its neighbor. After weekend talks 
in Geneva between U.S. and Ukrainian officials, Ukraine President Volodymyr 
Zelenskyy said the plan could be "workable," although key points remain 
unresolved. A Ukrainian official said Zelenskyy hoped to meet with Trump in 
coming days.

   Witkoff's role in the peace efforts came under a renewed spotlight Tuesday 
when a report indicated he coached Ushakov, the Putin aide, on how Russian 
leader should pitch Trump on the Ukraine peace plan.

   Trump described Witkoff's reported approach to the Russians in the call as 
"standard" negotiating procedure.

   "He's got to sell this to Ukraine. He's got to sell Ukraine to Russia," 
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to his home in Florida on 
Tuesday night. "That's what a dealmaker does."

   Russia's grim war of attrition in Ukraine continued as a backdrop to the 
diplomatic jockeying.

   The southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia came under a large Russian drone 
attack overnight, damaging more than 50 residential buildings, including a 
university dormitory filled with people, the head of the regional military 
administration, Ivan Fedorov, said Wednesday. The attack injured at least 19 
people, he said.

   Russian air defenses, meanwhile, downed 33 Ukrainian drones overnight over 
various Russian regions and the Black Sea, according to the Russian Defense 
Ministry.

   European countries, who are alarmed by Russia's aggression and see their own 
future at stake in negotiations over Ukraine, are fighting to make their voice 
heard in the talks as the United States takes the lead.

   German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday that Europe wants the war to 
end as quickly as possible.

   "But an agreement negotiated by great powers without the approval of the 
Ukrainians and without the approval of the Europeans won't be a basis for a 
real, sustainable peace in Ukraine," he told lawmakers in Berlin.

   "Europe is not a plaything but a sovereign actor for its own interests and 
values," he said.

   The head of the European Union's executive, Ursula Von der Leyen, was upbeat 
about recent developments, saying there is "an opportunity here to make real 
progress" toward peace.

   She insisted that any settlement must include future security guarantees for 
Ukraine. At the same time, she said a deal cannot contain limitations on 
Ukraine's armed forces or block its path to NATO membership. Those limits were 
part of the initial proposal.

   "As a sovereign nation, there can be no limitations on Ukraine's armed 
forces that would leave the country vulnerable to future attacks," she said 
during a speech at European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

   "This is as much about deterrence as it is about Europe's security, because 
Ukraine's security is Europe's security."