Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for more than three hours of talks in Moscow that a Kremlin aide called “highly useful,” setting the stage for the pair’s planned trip to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian leaders on Sunday.
The trip by Witkoff and Kushner signaled a renewed attempt by Trump to stop a war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022 and that the US president once said he could swiftly end. Witkoff and Kushner departed Moscow after the talks, the state-run Tass news agency reported. Because it believes it has the military edge over Ukraine, according to people close to the Kremlin, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters, putin is ready to stop the war only on his own terms, and Moscow’s demands are getting tougher.
“Our president reaffirmed his readiness to continue working jointly with the Americans to seek political and diplomatic solutions. The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment on the meeting. Putin ordered Russian forces to pause airstrikes on Kyiv as the two envoys prepared to visit the Ukrainian capital for the first time since the war began.
Putin’s meeting with President Donald Trump ’s envoys was “substantive, constructive, extremely frank and trusting,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in comments distributed by Russian media. They also discussed economic matters and potential Russian-US projects “in considerable detail,” Ushakov said. Ushakov said the “Russian side pointed to what it described as the Russian army’s tangible successes in advancing in the combat zone, expressed confidence that the stated objectives would be achieved. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that he’d spoken with the US envoys after their arrival in Moscow. Kyiv’s goal is to make the visit “as constructive and substantive as possible,” he said. “Diplomacy actually works, and we have to try to make sure that we talk first to those who are our allies,” Jovita Neliupšienė, the EU’s ambassador to Washington, said on Bloomberg This Weekend.
