Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on Saturday to discuss efforts to end the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The closed-door meeting lasted over three hours but concluded without any announcements of significant progress. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, characterized the discussions as constructive, candid, and beneficial for the media afterward, though he did not specify any particular results. Witkoff and Kushner are scheduled to arrive in Kyiv on Sunday.
These discussions occur amid escalating aerial assaults from both sides. During the talks, both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to suspend strikes on each other’s capitals.
Washington’s efforts to bring an end to the conflict have lost traction, as U.S. focus has shifted to the war in Iran over the past six months. The last recorded visit to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner, who is U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, was in January, when they also engaged in discussions with Putin at the Kremlin.
U.S. envoys are set to visit Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, for the first time in the peace negotiations on Sunday, according to Ukrainian officials.
At the beginning of the meeting in Moscow, Putin requested Kushner and Witkoff to convey his warm regards and appreciation to Trump, describing the situation in Ukraine as “not simple.” Russian forces initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin has ordered that no strikes be carried out against Kyiv for three days, starting at midnight today,” presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s Tass news agency.
Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was prepared to halt strikes on Moscow until Monday. He said he spoke on Saturday afternoon with the U.S. delegation after their arrival in Moscow.