Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have arrived in Moscow for planned talks with Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, the BBC reports. The US envoys’ visit comes a day after the latest round of negotiations ended in Abu Dhabi. Kushner has pledged to seek progress, but the report does not yet establish the outcome of the meeting with the Russian president.
The BBC describes footage released by Russian media showing the two negotiators leaving their aircraft and being welcomed by Kirill Dmitriev. After their Moscow talks, they were expected to travel to Dublin to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That meeting was a planned next stage of their trip, not an event that had already taken place.
The visit continues US-led diplomacy involving Russia and Ukraine. The latest round of talks in Abu Dhabi ended the previous day. We covered preparations for that process in our article on consultations ahead of talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US.
Kushner seeks European involvement in future talks
Before the meeting with Putin, Kushner spoke of opportunities for progress. He also said he would ask the Russian leader to agree to European representatives taking part in future negotiations, particularly those concerning Europe’s security architecture — the rules and arrangements intended to shape the continent’s security.
According to the BBC, Kushner also called on Europe to choose a single representative to speak for it at the negotiating table. European participation remains a proposal, however: the report does not establish that Russia has agreed to it.
Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi, also offered an optimistic assessment of the talks so far, saying the sides had moved closer to peace. That is the Russian negotiator’s assessment, not confirmation of an agreement. At this stage, the envoys’ arrival in Moscow marks another step in the negotiations rather than a resolution of the central issues.
