US Envoys Kushner and Witkoff Travel to Kyiv for the First Time

After several hours of talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, US special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff traveled on to Ukraine. They are due to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv today, in the negotiating duo’s first visit to the country since Russia launched its attack.

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substantive plans for next steps

A US government representative told Reuters that the Kremlin discussions covered “substantive plans for next steps” in efforts to end the war. The White House said those plans would be announced in the coming weeks. Putin’s foreign-policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, described the talks as constructive, substantive and conducted in a climate of trust.

Ushakov said Putin had presented his assessment of the situation, highlighting what he called “the actual successes of the Russian army in its advance in the theater of operations.” Experts, however, say Russia has made little territorial progress for months. Ushakov also said that eliminating the conflict’s root causes remained particularly important for Moscow, and that Putin had told the US envoys Russia would achieve its objectives.

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the actual successes of the Russian army in its advance in the theater of operations

The Kremlin again said on Friday that Ukraine should cede all the territory of the four regions claimed by Russia, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and abandon its plans to join NATO. US President Donald Trump had said before the Moscow meeting that Kushner and Witkoff would present Putin with new proposals for ending the war. Ushakov said the American representatives had “prepared thoroughly for this trip” and had presented several ideas for possible solutions.

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prepared thoroughly for this trip

It remains unclear whether the visit has produced meaningful movement. The Moscow-based Americanist Dmitry Novikov said the talks had achieved nothing beyond the formal resumption of a negotiating process that had been paused since spring. Putin and Zelenskyy agreed to a three-day local ceasefire to protect the US envoys. Moscow also pledged to suspend airstrikes on Kyiv during their visit. A White House representative told AFP that the envoys looked forward to “equally productive meetings tomorrow in Ukraine.”

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equally productive meetings tomorrow in Ukraine