After Kremlin visit, US negotiators deliver message to Europe

US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have told European officials that Russia is showing a “new willingness” to negotiate over the war in Ukraine. The message followed their meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

The negotiators also briefed representatives from Germany, France and the United Kingdom. A French presidential aide said the Americans had not specified the parameters of the talks, and Washington’s proposals had not been made public.

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new willingness

The aide said the renewed US involvement was encouraging after concerns that efforts to end the war in Ukraine had been overshadowed in recent months by the war in Iran. The message, he said, was that Russia’s position could change after the Russian State Duma elections scheduled for Sept. 18 to 20.

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This is a positive development.

The Kremlin said Monday that it did not rule out restarting negotiations in a three-way format involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States. The French aide called that a positive development, but stressed that Europeans and Ukrainians would need to remain firm in the talks.

Renewing dialogue did not mean that everything had suddenly been resolved, the aide said. It created an opportunity for diplomacy and for thinking through a possible process. “None of us can afford to ignore even the smallest possibility of moving toward a firm negotiating process based on credible parameters,” he added.

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None of us can afford to ignore even the smallest possibility of moving toward a firm negotiating process based on credible parameters.