Trump’s envoys arrive at Kremlin as Putin says situation is “not simple”

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Saturday for talks on the war in Ukraine, and Vladimir Putin opened their Kremlin meeting with a blunt assessment: “The situation of course is not simple.”

The Russian president spoke to the two U.S. special envoys in a video released through a Kremlin channel on the MAX communications platform. The meeting came after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington had a new and concrete proposal to end the war, which has lasted for more than four years. Trump did not disclose details of the proposal.

Russia and Ukraine had agreed to suspend attacks on Moscow and Kyiv for the following three days. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Witkoff and Kushner would travel to Ukraine on Sunday after their visit to Moscow. He said on X that Russia had attacked two Ukrainian airports ahead of their arrival in Kyiv.

The diplomatic contacts have not erased the fundamental differences between Moscow and Kyiv. The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin’s demand remained “unshakable”: Ukraine would have to hand Russia the entire territory of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims as its own and abandon its bid for NATO membership.

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The situation of course is not simple.