Kremlin Calls Talks With Trump Envoys Constructive

The Kremlin described Vladimir Putin’s renewed meeting with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as constructive, substantive and based on trust, but offered no sign that the talks had produced a breakthrough.

The meeting about a possible end to the war in Ukraine lasted more than three hours, Putin’s foreign-policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said overnight. He said Putin remained convinced that Russia would achieve the goals of what Moscow calls its “special military operation.”

Ushakov said Putin presented his assessment of the situation and highlighted what he called the Russian army’s actual successes as it advanced in the theater of operations. Experts, however, have offered differing assessments of the warring sides’ claimed and real progress at the front. Questions have also been raised about whether Putin receives an accurate picture from his general staff.

Ushakov said Russia’s priority remained removing what Moscow considers the root causes of the conflict, including Kyiv’s treatment of the Russian language in parts of Ukraine. He did not disclose new proposals that U.S. President Donald Trump and the Kremlin had said could be presented during the meeting.

Putin expected the two envoys to carry Russia’s position to Kyiv. Their trip to the Ukrainian capital would be their first visit there after several trips to Russia, and Zelenskyy was expected to receive them. Putin had promised to avoid air attacks on Kyiv during a three-day ceasefire, but Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of deliberately striking the city’s Shuliany and Boryspil airports before the Americans arrived. Earlier contacts between Putin and Trump’s envoys had helped lead to direct Russian-Ukrainian talks, but those negotiations stalled and stopped while Witkoff and Kushner focused mainly on Trump’s war with Iran.

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In particular, the actual successes of the Russian army in its advance in the theater of operations were highlighted.