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🇩🇪 Germany /Conflict & Security

An American weekend in Moscow and Kyiv

From Süddeutsche Zeitung · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources Ongoing story
  • U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and traveled to Kyiv the following day for talks linked to the war in Ukraine.
  • Donald Trump said the envoys carried a plan to end the war, while the article questions their diplomatic experience and the substance of the proposal.
  • The meetings produced no clear indication that the conflict is nearing an end, according to the report.

Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner spent the weekend shuttling between Moscow and Kyiv, offering a fresh display of U.S. diplomacy that has yet to bring the war in Ukraine closer to an end.

of course not an easy one

· Vladimir PutinPutin’s reported description of the situation at the start of talks with the U.S. envoys.

On Saturday, the two men sat across from Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. Russian and American media circulated a photograph from the meeting. Putin reportedly described the situation as “of course not an easy one” and asked the envoys to convey his best wishes and thanks to Trump.

great negotiators

· Donald TrumpTrump’s praise for Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

The difficult situation is Russia’s war against Ukraine, which the article says Putin began in 2014 and turned into a catastrophe with hundreds of thousands of deaths after the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Trump campaigned in 2024 on ending the war within 24 hours of taking office. Now, 20 months back in office, he has also been waging a war against Iran for six months, according to the article.

a plan to end the war

· Donald TrumpTrump’s description of what his envoys brought to Moscow and Kyiv.

Trump sent his negotiators to Moscow for the first time since January, and to Kyiv for the first time since returning to the White House. He has called Witkoff and Kushner “great negotiators,” but critics question their diplomatic experience and say they treat Putin with the same pronounced goodwill as Trump. Trump said they had brought “a plan to end the war,” while describing the conflict as “a personality problem between Russia and Ukraine” and saying Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin “really hate each other.” The shape of the plan remains unclear. The article recalls that Witkoff and Kushner previously met Putin’s representative Kirill Dmitriev at Witkoff’s golf club in Miami, after which they presented a 28-point plan that appeared to reflect the Kremlin’s position.

a personality problem between Russia and Ukraine

· Donald TrumpTrump’s characterization of the war.
About this summary

Originally published by Süddeutsche Zeitung in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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