By Benson Daniel
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have held extensive talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Trump administration steps up efforts to revive negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
The meeting in Moscow lasted more than three hours on Saturday and focused on possible ways to move the stalled peace process forward. A White House official said the discussions covered substantive plans for the next steps towards a potential settlement, with further details expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
The talks marked another major diplomatic effort by Washington after months of limited progress in attempts to bring Moscow and Kyiv closer to an agreement.
Witkoff, who serves as President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Kushner, Trump’s son in law, arrived in Moscow carrying proposals from the US administration. They later travelled to Kyiv, where they were due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of his negotiating team.
The visit to Kyiv is the first by the two US envoys since the full scale Russian invasion began and comes at a particularly sensitive moment in the conflict.
Russian presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov described the Moscow discussions as frank, constructive and useful. He said the American representatives had presented a number of ideas for resolving the conflict and that Putin had outlined Moscow’s position on the issues that it considers central to any settlement.
The Kremlin has continued to insist that what it calls the root causes of the conflict must be addressed, while Russia maintains its demands over territory and Ukraine’s future security arrangements.
Ukraine has rejected key Russian demands and continues to insist that any settlement must provide meaningful security guarantees and respect the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The diplomatic effort is taking place against the backdrop of continued fighting. Russian and Ukrainian forces have maintained attacks in several parts of the conflict zone, with drone and missile strikes continuing despite the renewed diplomatic contacts.
As part of the latest negotiations, Russia and Ukraine agreed to temporarily refrain from strikes on each other’s capitals while the American envoys were conducting their meetings. The arrangement was intended to create a calmer environment for the diplomatic initiative, although fighting continued elsewhere.
The renewed US effort comes after earlier attempts to broker a settlement failed to produce a lasting ceasefire. Trump has repeatedly said he wants to bring the conflict to an end and has pressed his administration to find a diplomatic route capable of putting the war on a path towards resolution.
For Washington, the immediate challenge is narrowing the differences between Moscow and Kyiv. Russia has maintained its territorial demands, while Ukraine has remained unwilling to accept an agreement that would formally surrender territory or leave it exposed to another attack.
Zelenskyy has nevertheless indicated that Ukraine remains prepared to engage constructively with the American delegation. His administration has stressed that peace must be accompanied by credible security guarantees.
The arrival of Witkoff and Kushner in Kyiv therefore gives the US a chance to hear Ukraine’s position directly after its discussions with Putin. The outcome could determine whether Washington’s latest initiative develops into a broader negotiating process or becomes another diplomatic effort without a concrete agreement.
For now, no breakthrough has been announced. But the decision by Washington to send its envoys to both Moscow and Kyiv in the same diplomatic push signals a renewed attempt to bridge the sharply different positions that have kept the war going for more than four years.
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