Trump envoys Witkoff and Kushner eye Putin meeting in Moscow
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, key envoys from President Donald Trump in Ukraine peace talks, are working to visit Moscow soon for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The encounter could occur this month, though plans remain fluid amid over two weeks of unrest in Iran, where security forces killed thousands of protesters during a nationwide internet blackout.
This potential trip unfolds as negotiators push to complete what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a peace deal 90 percent ready. Lingering issues, including territorial disputes and security guarantees, expose sharp divides among the parties.
The Moscow outreach follows what US officials described as fruitful December talks in Miami, where Witkoff and Kushner separately met Ukrainian officials and Putin's envoy, Kirill Dmitriev. Kremlin foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov quickly dismissed the US account, labeling the discussed proposals largely non-constructive.
Those Miami discussions came shortly after Putin accused Ukraine of rejecting a peaceful resolution and declared Russian victory inevitable during his annual press conference.
Witkoff and Kushner last met Putin in Moscow on December 2, 2025, in talks stretching past midnight for over five hours. Ushakov then called the exchange beneficial, constructive, and significant, while noting peace stood neither closer nor farther.
The envoys later joined European coalition discussions in Paris on January 6, where France and the United Kingdom pledged to establish military hubs in Ukraine as part of any peace accord. Russia firmly rejected any Western military presence there, with Foreign Ministry officials decrying such ideas as militarization, escalation, and further conflict aggravation.
At a UN Security Council meeting on January 12, the United States accused Russia of dangerous and inexplicable escalation after a nighttime missile strike on Kyiv. Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia retorted that until Zelenskyy accepts realistic negotiation terms, Moscow would continue resolving the issue through military means.
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