US envoys meet Putin in Moscow, Ukraine talks expected next

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday for three hours of closed-door talks at his official residence in Moscow, Russian state media reported. As the meeting took place, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready for "a substantive conversation."

Both sides described the discussions in broadly positive terms, though specifics remain scarce. Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov called the talks "constructive, extremely frank," adding that the conversation went beyond the Ukraine crisis to include economic matters and potential large-scale, mutually beneficial Russian-American projects, discussed in considerable detail.

Ushakov also said the talks touched on the Russian army's "tangible advances" on the battlefield, and that both sides acknowledged the need to address the "root causes" of the conflict.

Slow progress on the ground

Despite intensified Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Russian ground forces have advanced only slowly for most of the war, suffering heavy casualties in the process. Russia continues to control roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, land seized since 2022.

Kushner and Witkoff have travelled to Russia multiple times before, but since Ukraine's airspace has remained closed since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, it is unclear how they would travel onward to Kyiv from Moscow.

The talks follow a recent intensification of aerial attacks by both Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine has said a shortage of interceptor missiles has made it harder to counter ballistic missile strikes, while it has concentrated its own strikes on Russian economic infrastructure, particularly oil facilities.