Yesterday's key developments:

• Kremlinofficials confirmed Wednesday that USspecial envoySteve Witkoffis set to visit Moscow next week as efforts pick up speed to find a consensus on ending the nearly four-year war betweenRussiaandUkraine.

• Witkoffs role in the peace efforts came under renewed spotlight Tuesday when a report indicated that he coached a top aide to PresidentVladimirPutinon how Russia's leader should pitch a Ukraine deal to US PresidentDonald Trump.

• Polandhas chosenSwedento build newsubmarinesto boost its navy's capabilities in the context of thewar in Ukraineand fears of Russian threats, Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Makysz said.

• TheInternational Monetary Fundsaid it reached a staff-level agreement on a new four-year, $8.2 billion programme for Ukraine as the country faces mounting wartime fiscal pressures.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)

Originally published on France24