US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are set to arrive in Kyiv on Sunday for their first visit to the Ukrainian capital as part of a renewed push for peace, following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Three Hour Kremlin Meeting
Witkoff and Kushner, who is also President Trump’s son-in-law, held a three hour meeting with Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday afternoon, followed by dinner with the Russian leader, according to CNN. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described the talks as “extremely frank,” saying the US side had “put forward a number of ideas on possible routes to a settlement.”
A White House official told AFP the pair met with Putin to “advance President Trump’s agenda of peace in the Russia-Ukraine War,” and that both sides discussed substantive next steps to be announced in the coming weeks, according to Euronews.
Putin Orders Pause on Kyiv Strikes
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin ordered Russian forces to halt strikes on Kyiv for three days while the envoys make their trip, with the pause taking effect from midnight Saturday, Euronews reported. Trump told reporters Friday that Witkoff and Kushner would bring a “proposal to end the war” to both Kyiv and Moscow.
Visit Follows Renewed Aerial Attacks
The diplomatic push comes as the air war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Saturday that Russian missiles struck two airports near Kyiv, including Boryspil, before the envoys’ visit, according to CNN. Zelenskyy said the strikes appeared to be a reaction to preparations for the American side’s arrival in Ukraine.
The last known visit to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner for talks with Putin was in January, and Washington’s peace efforts have lost momentum in recent months as the US has focused heavily on the war with Iran.
Dmitriev, head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund and a Kremlin special envoy who also took part in the talks, described the Moscow meeting as an “important peacemaking visit” in a social media post following the discussions. The renewed diplomatic effort comes as troops on both sides have struggled to make significant progress along the roughly 1,250 kilometer front line.
