Azernews.Az

A senior Russian military official has been killed in a car explosion near Moscow, as Vladimir Putin began his high-stakes meeting in the Kremlin with Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, Azernews reports citing The Guardian.

The Russian authorities named the officer as Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik, the deputy head of the main operations directorate of the general staff of the Russian armed forces.

The blast appeared to be similar in nature to previous attacks on Russians that were later claimed by Ukraine and could cast a shadow over Friday’s talks between Moscow and Washington.

The Kremlin published a short clip showing Putin and Witkoff shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries before sitting down on opposite sides of a white oval table to start their meeting behind closed doors. Putin was flanked in the meeting with Witkoff, who holds no formal diplomatic credentials, by his senior foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, and investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

Trump has played up Witkoff’s visit – his fourth to Russia in recent months – claiming a peace deal is within reach. “The next few days are going to be very important. Meetings are taking place right now,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “I think we’re going to make a deal … I think we’re getting very close.”

In an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, Trump said that “Crimea will stay with Russia”, the latest example of the US leader putting pressure on Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege. During the interview, Trump posed beside a portrait of himself reportedly given to him by Putin, a symbolic nod to the warm ties between the two leaders that has unnerved Ukraine and much of Europe.

Reuters on Friday published two sets of documents outlining the US and Ukrainian proposals for ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, revealing significant differences on issues ranging from territorial concessions to sanctions.

The latest apparent Ukrainian assassination deep inside Russian territory is unlikely to sit well with the Trump administration which has been desperate to show tangible progress on peace before Trump’s 100th day in office next week.

Despite Putin’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire and continued missile strikes on Ukraine, the US president has repeatedly criticised Volodymyr Zelenskyy over stalled peace talks, while adopting a more cautious tone toward the Russian leader.