Steve Witkoff certainly knows how to make a Ukrainian reach for the sick bag. Sitting across from Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Saturday, Donald Trump’s special envoy thanked the Russian president for receiving him and Jared Kushner, and promptly puckered his lips to kiss the Russian president’s proverbial behind. There are probably better ways to describe negotiations to end a war that has killed and wounded hundreds of thousands, driven millions from their homes, and left Ukraine with an estimated $588 billion in reconstruction and recovery needs than as a cracking yarn for the old folks’ home.
And yet, as Russian troops continue to make slow but steady progress on the front line and jet-powered drones invade Ukrainian skies, Kyiv may need more of Witkoff’s cringeworthy brand of flattery in the months to come. The weekend’s flurry of diplomacy achieved about as much as expected in terms of moving toward a peace deal, which is to say, nothing. Witkoff and Kushner spent just three hours at the Kremlin on Saturday before wrapping up the talks and heading for Kyiv, but they did manage to produce one thing for war-weary Ukrainians: clear skies.
This was not a nationwide ceasefire; Russians and Ukrainians continued killing one another elsewhere. But Putin ordered Russian forces not to strike Kyiv for three days around the visit, while Ukraine agreed not to hit Moscow—and the agreement held. Zelensky thanked Witkoff and Kushner on Sunday for “giving the opportunity for our people to live a bit,” joking that their presence had “worked better today than the Patriot systems” on which Ukraine relies to shoot down Russian missiles.
Kyiv has spent months absorbing near-nightly barrages as Russia scales its deployment of faster, jet-powered drones that are harder and more expensive to intercept. Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Moscow launched roughly 350 in June, 1,500 in July and more than 2,800 in August. Ukraine is shooting down only around 60 percent of them, according to Ihnat, compared with 90 to 95 percent of conventional one-way attack drones.
Zelensky also revealed at the weekend that some 67 Ukrainian companies are now working on new air defense systems to bring them down, but made it clear that Kyiv hopes diplomacy, facilitated by Witkoff and Kushner, can deliver results. All that air-defense work is Plan B, and every Russian missile and drone that remains grounded because American envoys are in town is one less lethal projectile heading for a Ukrainian city. If telling Putin how fascinating he will be in retirement buys a few quiet nights in Kyiv, Witkoff should do so over and over again.
Witkoff could spend the next six months buttering Putin like a Thanksgiving turkey and still not change Russia’s terms. Putin aide Yuri Ushakov’s account of Saturday’s talks was uncompromising. The foreign policy veteran described the talks as “useful” and “extremely frank,” but said Putin remained confident Russia would achieve its military objectives and again insisted that any settlement address the war’s “root causes.” The Russian president defined those terms in June 2024: Ukraine should withdraw from all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, including territory Russia does not control; accept neutrality and exclusion from NATO; and submit to what Moscow calls “demilitarization” and “denazification.” He also demanded recognition of Russia’s annexations and the removal of Western sanctions.
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