The US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have arrived in Moscow to try to resuscitate a deal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as both sides said they would halt airstrikes for the visit. The envoys were met at the airport on Saturday by the Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, a key interlocutor for the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Ukraine-Russia war. The US outlet Axios reported that they were expected to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, later in the day.
The visit came as Trump suggested on Friday a new proposal to end the war, without providing any details on what his new plan might be. Trump made ending the war a priority early in his second term, but his efforts have so far yielded little results. They’ve done a great job, and we sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done.
And there may be a good chance that we’ll do it,” Trump said. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Kyiv would stop its airstrikes during the US officials’ visit and asked Moscow do the same. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Saturday that Putin had ordered a 72-hour pause in strikes on Kyiv.
Large gaps remain between Russia and Ukraine on how to end the war. On Friday, the Kremlin said it was sticking by the position Putin set out two years earlier – that Ukraine should give up four regions claimed by Russia and not join Nato. That position is intolerable to Ukraine.
Witkoff and Kushner were expected to visit Kyiv on Sunday, which would be the first time the two envoys have visited the Ukrainian capital. Both have visited Moscow before, most recently in January when they met Putin in the Kremlin. As peace efforts floundered in recent months, with US attention turned to its war with Iran, the conflict has intensified.
Ground troops have been locked in a grinding stalemate along the 775-mile (1,250km) frontline with little advances on either side. Both sides have intensified their aerial attacks in recent weeks, hitting increasingly distant targets. Ukraine has carried out long-range strikes on Russian military facilities, oil refineries and e-commerce warehouses, to try to degrade Russia’s war effort and economy.
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