MOSCOW/WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to meet on Tuesday with Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, as Washington intensifies its push for a negotiated settlement to end the war in Ukraine.

Witkoff is expected to present Putin with a revised U.S.-supported peace proposal that American officials reworked following recent talks with Ukrainian diplomats. The proposal follows weeks of friction after an earlier draft circulated last month, which Ukrainian and European officials said “echoed Moscow’s maximalist demands,” according to The New York Times. A leaked set of 28 U.S. draft proposals had “spooked” European and Ukrainian leaders who believed the terms bent too closely toward Russia’s core conditions.

The Moscow meeting will also include Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, a White House official told Reuters. It will mark Witkoff’s sixth trip to Russia this year, underscoring the administration’s effort to maintain a high-level channel with the Kremlin during what analysts describe as a volatile moment on the battlefield.

The revised plan comes after American and Ukrainian delegations convened in Miami two days earlier to outline changes Ukraine is seeking to soften provisions it considered untenable. Both sides described the talks as constructive while acknowledging that major sticking points remain unresolved.

European governments pushed back on Washington’s early proposals, and European powers later submitted their own counter-proposal. During subsequent talks in Geneva, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said they had developed an “updated and refined peace framework,” according to Reuters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Monday in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron as he sought renewed support from European partners. Zelensky wrote on X that “the war must be brought to a fair end,” following the meeting. He is scheduled to hold further discussions in Ireland on Tuesday.

Putin has repeatedly insisted that Moscow is open to talks but warned that Russian forces would continue advancing if Ukraine refuses to accept terms. “When the Ukrainian troops leave the territories they occupy, then the hostilities will cease,” Putin said at a recent news conference, adding, “If they do not leave, we will achieve it militarily.”

Russia’s demands include permanent Ukrainian renunciation of NATO membership, ceding its remaining territory in the Donbas, recognizing Russian control over Crimea and other occupied regions, and granting protections for Russian language, culture, and the Russian Orthodox Church. Ukraine has rejected these conditions, arguing they amount to a forced capitulation and would leave the country vulnerable to future aggression.

Russian forces currently control more than 19 percent of Ukraine — roughly 115,600 square kilometers — and have advanced through 2025 at the fastest pace since the early months of the invasion, according to pro-Ukrainian battlefield maps cited by Reuters. Russian commanders told Putin that troops recently captured the frontline towns of Pokrovsk and Vovchansk.

On Monday, the Kremlin released video of Putin visiting a battlefield command post. In the state media clip, the president appeared visibly angry after hearing a commander describe heavy Ukrainian casualties, saying the situation was “a tragedy” connected to what he called “the criminal policies of the thieving junta that seized power in Kyiv,” referring to the 2014 uprising that brought in a pro-Western government.

Political analysts in Moscow cautioned that expectations for a breakthrough during Witkoff’s visit remain low. “The main expectations likely boil down to maintaining a high-level communication channel during this crisis period,” said Ilya Grashchenkov, a political analyst cited by The New York Times. “This in itself is considered important for avoiding dangerous escalation.”

Grashchenkov also noted that Russia’s slowing economic growth — projected near zero — and its widening budget deficit due to the spiraling cost of the war could pressure the Kremlin toward compromise over time, though he said Moscow has so far “managed to paper over the economic cracks.”

Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center said on Telegram that Putin believes Ukraine’s battlefield losses will grow and that more Western voices will call for a pause to the fighting.

U.S. officials estimate that more than 1.2 million troops from both sides have been killed or injured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. Neither Russia nor Ukraine publicly discloses casualty figures.

As the Trump administration renews its push for a settlement, the meeting in Moscow marks the latest test of whether Washington, Kyiv, and European allies can forge a united path toward ending what has become the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.