Moscow: US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Saturday as Washington renewed efforts to negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev met the pair on arrival. Witkoff and Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, were expected to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin before continuing to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the American negotiators were due in Kyiv on Sunday. The trip would mark their first visit to the Ukrainian capital since Trump returned to office, following earlier rounds of negotiations that have struggled to produce a breakthrough.
Speaking on Friday, Trump said he had sent Witkoff and Kushner with a proposal to end the war. He did not disclose its terms but expressed hope that the mission could make progress.
The visit comes alongside announcements of temporary limits on airstrikes. The Kremlin said Putin had ordered a three-day suspension of strikes on Kyiv, beginning at midnight after Saturday, to allow the US delegation’s visit to proceed. Zelenskyy also pledged a pause in Ukrainian airstrikes during the American mission.
The announced restrictions are limited in scope and duration. They do not amount to a comprehensive ceasefire, and fighting has continued as the diplomatic effort gets under way.
The talks bring fresh attention to negotiations that had lost momentum in recent months. Yet the central disagreements remain unresolved, particularly over territory and Ukraine’s future security arrangements. Russia has continued to press demands that Kyiv rejects, leaving considerable distance between the two sides.
For now, the immediate question is whether the meetings in Moscow and Kyiv can establish a basis for further negotiations. With Russia’s full-scale invasion now in its fifth year, the envoys arrive with a proposal whose terms remain undisclosed and no agreement yet announced.
