Witkoff and Kushner discuss war-ending plans with Putin in Moscow, White House says
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss next steps for advancing President Trump's peace plan for Ukraine. The delegation is set to hold its first talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss the Trump administration's proposed peace plan for ending the war in Ukraine, a White House official confirmed to AFP.
Following the meeting, the official said both sides discussed concrete plans for next steps, which will be disclosed in the coming weeks. The White House expressed hope that Sunday's talks in Kyiv would prove equally productive.
Russian side calls talks "extremely frank"
Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov described the three-hour meeting as "extremely frank," adding that the American side had put forward a number of ideas on possible paths to resolving the conflict, though he did not elaborate further. Ushakov also said Moscow had told the Americans it was confident it could achieve its military goals in Ukraine.
According to Axios, the US delegation also included Michael Faucher... (correction) — actually the report named Gene Langley, a US Treasury Department official responsible for sanctions policy. He met with Putin's special envoy and head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, but did not take part in the meeting with Putin himself. His presence suggests the question of US sanctions on Russia was also discussed.
Next stop — Kyiv
Although Witkoff and Kushner have visited Moscow several times before, Sunday will mark their first visit to Kyiv, where they are due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Overnight into Sunday, the delegation flew from Moscow to Poland — flight-tracking data showed the aircraft crossing Latvian and Lithuanian airspace before landing at Rzeszów airport, from where foreign delegations typically travel to Kyiv by train, since Ukrainian airspace remains closed due to the war.
Ahead of the envoys' visit, Ukraine announced it would refrain from air strikes on Moscow while the American delegation is in Russia and Ukraine. The Kremlin, in turn, said Putin had ordered a three-day halt to attacks on Kyiv.
