US officials are headed to Russia to discuss a potential ceasefire in Ukraine. The news comes after Ukrainian officials agreed to a 30-day ceasefire following a highly anticipated meeting with US officials in Saudi Arabia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It’s true that [US] negotiators are en route and it’s true that contacts are planned. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we’ll tell you about them later.”The American visit comes as the Russian military claimed to have recaptured Sudzha – a key town in the Kursk region that Ukraine invaded last year in a surprise attack.President Vladimir Putin visited Kursk on Wednesday and met military commanders, who told him Russian troops had recaptured 86% of the area and were in the final stage of driving Ukrainian forces out.Following the talks between US and Ukraine in Jeddah on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was now up to the US to convince Russia to agree to the “positive” proposal.Yesterday Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the “ball is truly in their [Russia’s] court” and that the US believes the only way to end the fighting was through peace negotiations. The Kremlin has said it was studying the ceasefire deal, and that a phone call between Trump and Putin was possible. On Wednesday Trump said he had received “positive messages” about the possibility of a ceasefire. “But a positive message means nothing,” he said. “This is a very serious situation.” Trump did not specify which officials were travelling to Moscow.However, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House that National Security Secretary Mike Waltz had spoken to his Russian counterpart. And Russian news agency RIA reported a plane carrying US envoy Steve Witkoff had landed in Moscow. A source familiar with the matter also told the BBC earlier this week that Witkoff – who is Middle East envoy – was heading there.”We urge the Russians to sign on to this plan. This is the closest we have been to peace in this war,” Leavitt said. In the Oval Office, Trump sa …
