US envoy Witkoff heading to Moscow for truce talks – DW – 03/13/2025

The Kremlin said on Thursday that its troops would soon complete an operation to drive Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region of western Russia, seven months after Kyiv’s troops staged a daring incursionthere and seized large swathes of territory.

The Russian Defense Ministry also announced that its forces had retaken the Kursk town of Sudzha, which, if confirmed, would be a significant gain for Moscow.

The announcements come a day after President Vladimir Putin visited the region on Wednesday and ordered his commanders to conclude the operation as soon as possible.

Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region in August has been an embarrassment to the Kremlin and brought about the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since World War Two.

Russia has ended up deploying North Korean troops alongside its own as it tries to dislodge the Ukrainian presence.

Ukraine accepted a proposal put forward by Washington for a 30-day ceasefire at talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, but little is known about what it contains or whether Russia, which is staging a full-scale invasion of its neighbor, will be ready to agree to it without conditions.

The Kremlin has previously said it is not prepared for peace unless Ukraine officially drops its intention to join NATO and withdraws its troops completely from four Ukrainian regions currently controlled mostly by Russia and which Moscow claims as its own.

 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US wants Moscow to agree without making extra demands.

“That’s what we want to know — if they’re prepared to do it unconditionally,” Rubio said on a plane as he headed to a G7 meeting in Canada.

“If the response is, ‘yes,’ then we know we’ve made real progress, and there’s a real chance of peace. If their response is ‘no,’ it would be highly unfortunate, and it’ll make their intentions clear,” he added.

 “It’s up to Russia now,” US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday. “And if we can get Russia to stop, then we have a full ceasefire. And I think it’ll never go back to war.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin might comment on the ceasefire proposal today.
 

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff,  will be in Moscow to discuss a 30-day ceasefire proposal agreed by the US and Ukraine at talks in Saudi Arabia earlier in the week.

This comes as the Kremlin says Russian troops are close to concluding an operation to push Ukrainian troops out of Russia’s western Kursk region.

Ukrainian forces carried out an incursion into the Kursk region in August, capturing large swathes of territory there.

Meanwhile, Russia has once more bombarded several Ukrainian cities overnight.