Russian President Vladimir Putin has held more than three hours of late-night discussions with United States envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in Moscow as Washington intensifies efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.
The talks took place at the Kremlin on Saturday and ended shortly after 11:00pm Moscow time, ahead of the US envoys’ planned visit to Kyiv on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump had earlier said his son-in-law Kushner and business associate Witkoff were travelling with a proposal aimed at bringing the conflict to an end.
Their planned trip to Kyiv will mark their first visit to the Ukrainian capital as Washington seeks to revive US-led negotiations over the war, which has become Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
Russia and Ukraine have also agreed to refrain from attacking each other’s capitals for three days to create an environment for the diplomatic engagement.
Speaking on television shortly before the Kremlin meeting began, Putin thanked Trump for continuing his efforts to end the war despite the complexity of the negotiations.
Putin said he appreciated Trump not stopping his efforts to find a solution to the conflict, which Russia launched in 2022, describing the task as not simple.
The Kremlin leader has repeatedly maintained that Russia intends to take control of the remaining parts of eastern Ukraine. Washington, however, has not disclosed whether its proposed peace plan would require Kyiv to surrender territory.
The meeting came after months of intensified fighting, with civilian deaths rising sharply on both sides. The conflict has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions of Ukrainians from their homes.
Ukrainian authorities said Russian attacks killed 10 people across the country on Saturday, including a child and members of his family in the Kharkiv region, as well as two people outside Kyiv.
Despite Moscow’s repeated attacks on the Ukrainian capital throughout the war, Putin assured the visiting US envoys that Russia would take steps to protect them during their trip to Kyiv.
“We will do everything that depends on us to ensure the safety of the negotiation process and mediators such as yourselves,” Putin told Witkoff and Kushner.
