The Trump administration has launched a new attempt to broker peace talks between Russian and Ukraine with his top negotiators flying to Moscow and then Kyiv over the weekend.
US President Donald Trump said ahead of the trip that his special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, would convey a new offer to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin but declined to offer further details. The diplomats met with Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday before heading to Kyiv on Sunday.
The trip comes at a time of heightened escalation fears with Russia and Ukraine scaling up long-range strikes against sensitive targets including airports and critical infrastructure, and concerns that Moscow could expand the war into Nato territory. It follows a first known visit by a CIA chief to Russia since before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
What we know
Trump’s envoys arrived in Kyiv by train after “constructive” talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, marking their first trip to Ukraine.
They were greeted by Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, before heading to the St Sophia Cathedral complex. British, German, and French national security advisors were also in Kyiv to attend the session.
“The negotiations have begun,” Zelensky said in a post on social media. The Ukrainian leader said ahead of the visit he would emphasise the need for security guarantees and a “dignified character of the postwar peace.” He added: “Our proposals are ready.”
Steve Witkoff, a billionaire real estate investor appointed by Trump as a special envoy for peace missions, and Trump’s son in law, businessman Jared Kushner, previously attended a three hour meeting with Putin that was their eighth visit to Moscow of Trump’s term in office.
The session was described by Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov as “constructive, extremely frank”. The pair then joined Putin for dinner according to a Kremlin press briefing.
Witkoff and Kushner were accompanied in Moscow by US security, diplomatic, and treasury department officials according to a Trump administration official. Security measures ahead of the trip were said to involve weeks of planning.
Both Russia and Ukraine said they would suspend aerial attacks on each other’s capitals during Witkoff and Kushner’s three-day trip, aimed at providing a respite from an escalating exchange of drone and missile fire launched by Moscow and Kyiv.
Breakthrough hopes
Zelensky said ahead of the meeting that his government was ready to make progress towards a peace deal. “Ukraine has always been and will remain constructive. We are interested in bringing the end of the war closer. Peace is needed,” he said.
After leaving Moscow, the US representatives were looking forward to “equally productive meetings” in Kyiv as those in Moscow according to the White House.
Donald Trump has long been looking for a way to end the conflict in Ukraine, and both sides are increasingly suffering from a stalemate on the battlefield and an increasing reliance on air attacks that hit critical military and civilian infrastructure.
After the Moscow meeting, Kirill Dmitriev, an advisor to Vladimir Putin who was present for the talks, called the trip by Witkoff and Kushner an “important peacemaking visit”, with Ushakov calling the negotiations “timely and highly useful for both sides”.
The American envoys have not yet commented publicly on the discussions with Putin, but a US official said next steps towards a settlement would be announced “in the coming weeks”.
Speaking to the media ahead of the closed-door session with Witkoff and Kushner, Putin praised Donald Trump’s efforts to secure a peace deal saying that the US president understands the situation is difficult but that Trump “nevertheless does not stop his efforts to help bring about a settlement and to make his contribution to resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict”.
Putin is coming under increasing pressure at home as Russian casualties in Ukraine exceed the number of troops it can recruit, and Ukrainian attacks on warehouses, ports, and oil infrastructure cause fuel shortages and damage to businesses for ordinary Russians.
This might provide an opportunity for dialogue and both Russian and American representatives have stressed the benefits of an end to the war for business and economic reasons.
The talks on Saturday in Moscow not only involved the war itself, but also “economic issues and potential major, mutually beneficial Russian-American projects”, according to the advisor Ushakov.
to a deal
Fundamentally there is a lack of trust on all sides. Despite assurances of a halt to the bombing campaign, Ukrainian media reported Russian attacks in the Kyiv region overnight on Saturday with officials saying that at least eight people were killed by Russian strikes in Ukraine over that last 24 hours.
Putin’s position on what he calls the “root causes” of the conflict remain unchanged from the launch of the invasion in 2022. The Kremlin reiterated on Friday that its commitment to annexing the four regions of Ukraine it partially occupies, and to forcing Kyiv to accept “neutrality” and abandon hopes of joining Nato, were “unshakeable.”
Zelensky’s call for “security guarantees” has previously involved a demand for Nato forces to police a ceasefire and potentially be drawn into direct fire with Russia – a non-starter for Trump and the Kremlin.
For Trump, dispatching his envoys to both capitals may be more about distraction and business interests than a sustainable peace settlement.
Jane Hardy, a former diplomat and security expert with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told The i Paper Trump’s sudden diplomatic push was in keeping with the President’s playbook as a “master of distraction” in the face of serious trade and economic issues facing America.
Some analysts fear that Trump and his team will offer concessions to Putin in return for favourable business agreements with Russia.
Earlier this year, Volodymyr Zelensky, citing Ukrainian intelligence, claimed Russia had promised deals worth $12trn (£8.8trn) to America for Arctic oil and gas, rare-earth minerals, a nuclear-powered data centre and a tunnel under the Bering Strait in return for sanctions relief. While reports suggest that people close to the Trump family have been in talks to acquire stakes in Russian energy assets according to the Economist.