U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoys are hoping for "equally productive meetings" in Ukraine after holding talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war, U.S. officials said.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday after “discussing specific plans for further action with Putin” on Saturday, the White House said.
It is not yet clear what exactly this is about, but an announcement is expected to be made in the coming weeks as efforts to end the war in Ukraine gain momentum.
This will be the first visit of US President Donald Trump's chief negotiators to the capital of Ukraine. Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky agreed to suspend strikes on each other's capitals for three days.
On Saturday, the Kremlin hosted talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to end the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin said the closed-door meeting lasted more than three hours and was “constructive and extremely frank.”
“The conversation lasted more than three hours, or more precisely 3 hours and 10 minutes,” Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
According to him, Witkoff and Kushner during the meeting expressed interest in the speedy end of hostilities in Ukraine, and also formulated their thoughts on the settlement.
“American representatives have seriously prepared for this trip. They not only expressed their traditional interest in a speedy end to hostilities, but also formulated a whole series of considerations regarding possible ways of settlement,” Ushakov said.
Putin told Trump's representatives that Russia intends to achieve its goals [in Ukraine], and for a settlement it is necessary to eliminate the “root causes of the conflict,” Ushakov said. The Russian side also outlined to the Americans its assessment of the situation on the front line.
According to Ushakov, US representatives promised to take into account Putin's assessments during upcoming negotiations in Kyiv, the goal of which is to find ways to a long-term agreement to end the war.
Trump's special envoys have not yet commented on the results of the meeting in the Kremlin. Late on Saturday evening they left Moscow's Vnukovo airport and went to Ukraine for negotiations with Vladimir Zelensky.
On Sunday night, world news agencies circulated a short statement from a White House representative. According to him, in Moscow, Trump's envoys "discussed specific plans for further actions, which will be announced in the coming weeks, and look forward to equally productive meetings in Ukraine."
Axios also reported that Gene Lang, who oversees sanctions policy at the US Treasury Department, took part in the negotiations conducted by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
According to him, Lang took part in a meeting with the special representative of the Russian president and head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev, but was not present at the negotiations with Vladimir Putin.
Lang's participation indicates that the issue of US sanctions against Russia was discussed during the negotiations, the publication notes. A White House spokesman told Axios that the meetings in Moscow included "officials from the National Security Council, the State Department and the Treasury Department."
“Dear colleagues, I cordially welcome you to Moscow. The situation, of course, is not easy—that’s how Putin began his meeting with the American delegation, according to Russian press reports. “But before we start discussing it, I would like to ask everyone to convey our best wishes and words of gratitude to the President of the United States, Mr. Trump.”
Witkoff and Kushner's visit to Moscow is another attempt by Washington to restart the peace process aimed at ending the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II. So far, attempts by the United States and its allies to reach a peace agreement have not been successful.
Ahead of the meeting, US President Donald Trump said his son-in-law Kushner and longtime business partner Witkoff were bringing a “proposal to end the war” to Moscow and Kyiv.
“They are bringing with them a proposal to end the war,” Trump said. “We sent them there to see if we could get something done, and we might have a good chance of success.”
The essence of this proposal was not disclosed in Washington.
The meeting in Moscow took place against the backdrop of intensifying Russian air strikes on Ukraine, which have killed dozens of civilians in recent months.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said Kyiv would not conduct air strikes on Russia during the visit of Trump envoys and invited Moscow to do the same.
On Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news outlets that Vladimir Putin had ordered him to stop launching strikes on Kyiv starting at midnight on September 6.
As the New York Times reported on Friday, before the visit of the US President's special envoys, Washington called on Moscow and Kyiv to temporarily stop mutual attacks.
Witkoff and Kushner, who were involved in ceasefire negotiations in Gaza and Iran, have visited Moscow several times as part of previous diplomatic efforts. In particular, as the NYT calculated, Witkoff met with Putin more than six times.
