MOSCOW — US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Thursday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a renewed push for a peace deal in Ukraine.
The Kremlin meetings, expected to take place in the first half of the day, will mark the 10th time Witkoff has met Putin in person. The visit follows two days of trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi, which ended on Wednesday with an agreement on another planned major prisoner exchange but no public breakthrough in the wider negotiations.
Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy, met Kushner and Witkoff on arrival amid wet snow and accompanied them to central Moscow ahead of their discussions with the Russian president.
This week’s Abu Dhabi talks were the first direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the United States in nine months. Although Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reported some progress, US officials said major differences remained, particularly over territory.
Despite public optimism from US President Donald Trump, there has been no sign of major compromises. Kyiv has firmly rejected Putin’s demand that Ukraine surrender the whole of the eastern Donbas region in return for peace.
With negotiations deadlocked over land, US mediators have sought to shift the focus toward postwar security guarantees and reconstruction. A senior Russian diplomat said on Wednesday that Moscow could conclude non-aggression pacts with NATO member states as part of a new European security framework.
However, many European politicians oppose discussions on Europe’s broader security arrangements before concrete progress is made on Ukraine, including a ceasefire.