Russian official heads to Washington for talks: Source

WASHINGTON — A senior Russian official is expected to visit Washington this week for talks with the Donald Trump administration, according to a source familiar with the plan.

Kirill Dmitriev, the chief of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, who was appointed last month as Kremlin's special envoy on international economic and investment cooperation, will meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Their meeting was reported earlier by CNN, which said Dmitriev and Witkoff will hold talks on strengthening relations between the two countries as they seek to end the conflict in Ukraine.

The White House and the US Department of State did not immediately offer a comment. The Russian embassy in Washington and the Russian Direct Investment Fund did not respond to a request for comment outside business hours.

Dmitriev's trip will be the first time a senior Russian official has visited Washington for talks since Russia launched the special military operation in Ukraine in 2022.

The visit follows recent telephone calls between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and comes as the US president seeks to meet with his Russian counterpart soon.

'Complex issue'

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia and the US are continuing talks to resolve the Ukraine conflict, calling it a "complex issue".

"We are continuing to maintain contact with the United States," Peskov said at a daily briefing, commenting on reported threats from the US to impose additional sanctions on Russia's oil industry if ongoing peace talks fail to make substantive progress.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview that Russia could not simply accept the US-backed proposal on Ukraine, as it fails to address Russia's demands for resolving the root causes of the conflict.

Meanwhile in Europe, a UK government spokesperson said the country plans to follow up on recent high-level, multination meetings on the Russia-Ukraine conflict with additional gatherings in the coming days.

The official said the meetings will involve senior military figures from the UK, France and Ukraine. They will focus on fleshing out the concept of the "coalition of the willing" that London and Paris have said should be formed to provide peacekeeping or "reassurance" services if a peace deal is reached between Russia and Ukraine.

Keith Bennett, a London-based senior international relations analyst, told China Daily the gatherings organized recently by London and Paris seem to have made few breakthroughs.

"They're really drawing attention to the fact that they haven't made any progress with their plans because it's all talk and no implementation," he said.

Bennett noted that the meeting in Paris involved around 30 countries but that "the essential dialogue is between Britain and France".

He said the situation has turned complicated as the UK and France seem to differ on the role of the "coalition of the willing", with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer seeing it as a peacekeeping force while President Emmanuel Macron of France is seemingly open to the idea of possibly engaging militarily with Russia.

Zheng Wanyin in London contributed to this story.

Agencies - Xinhua