US special envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Moscow as efforts to find a consensus on ending the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine pick up speed.

But Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, insisted Kremlin officials still had not seen a US peace proposal, even though representatives of the US, Russia and Ukraine met in Abu Dhabi this week.

“Contact is ongoing, including via telephone, but no one has yet sat down at a round table and discussed this point-by-point. That hasn’t happened,” Ushakov told Russian state media on Wednesday (local time).

Ukrainian officials did not confirm whether US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who in recent weeks has played a high-profile role in the peace efforts, would be in Kyiv in the coming days, as Trump indicated on Tuesday.

Steve Witkoff is returning to Russia, where he met Vladimir Putin in April. Photo: AAP

Trump’s plan for ending the war became public last week, setting off a spate of diplomatic manoeuvring.

The initial version appeared heavily slanted towards Russian demands for halting its invasion of its neighbour.

After weekend talks in Geneva between US and Ukrainian officials, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the plan could be “workable”, although key points remain unresolved.

A Ukrainian official said Zelensky hoped to meet Trump in coming days.

Witkoff’s role in the peace efforts came under a renewed spotlight on Tuesday when a report indicated he had coached Ushakov, the Putin aide, on how the Russian leader should pitch Trump on the Ukraine peace plan.

Trump described Witkoff’s reported approach to the Russians in the call as “standard” negotiating procedure.

“He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia,” Trump said aboard Air Force One as he flew to his home in Florida.

“That’s what a deal-maker does.”

Russia’s grim war of attrition in Ukraine continued as a backdrop to the diplomatic jockeying.

The southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia had been attacked by Russian drones, damaging more than 50 residential buildings, including a university dormitory filled with people, the head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov, said on Wednesday (local time).

The attack injured at least 19 people, he said.

Russian air defences, meanwhile, downed 33 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions and the Black Sea, according to the Russian defence ministry.

European countries, who are alarmed by Russia’s aggression and see their own future at stake in negotiations over Ukraine, are fighting to make their voice heard in the talks as the US takes the lead.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Europe wanted the war to end as quickly as possible, but an agreement that led to “a real, sustainable peace” had to have the approval of Ukraine and Europe.

“Europe is not a plaything but a sovereign actor for its own interests and values,” he told MPs in Berlin.

The head of the European Union’s executive, Ursula Von der Leyen, was upbeat about recent developments, saying there was “an opportunity here to make real progress” towards peace.

She insisted any settlement must include future security guarantees for Ukraine.

At the same time, she said a deal could not include limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces or block its path to NATO membership, limits that were part of the initial proposal.

“As a sovereign nation, there can be no limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces that would leave the country vulnerable to future attacks,” she said in a speech at European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

“This is as much about deterrence as it is about Europe’s security, because Ukraine’s security is Europe’s security.”