American negotiators are scheduled to head to Kiev on Sunday after intensive talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as Washington ramps up efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner began a whirlwind weekend of diplomacy with a three-hour meeting with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Saturday afternoon. The negotiations were followed by a dinner with Russian leaders, according to a Kremlin press conference.
On Saturday afternoon, the Kremlin released footage of Witkoff and Kushner meeting with President Putin in the Kremlin.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov later said the meeting had been “instructive” and that the U.S. delegation had “seriously prepared for this visit.” He said the U.S. team had expressed an interest in ending hostilities as soon as possible and proposed “a series of considerations on possible paths to reconciliation.”
Mr. Ushakov said Mr. Witkov and Mr. Kushner promised to use “observations and assessments personally received from the Russian president” in their meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday.
A White House official said the two sides were “discussing substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks.”
Mr. Witkov and Mr. Kushner are next scheduled to visit Kiev on Sunday, their first visit to the Ukrainian capital since the war began.
The U.S. team’s visit to Kiev comes amid near-constant Russian missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital, including a direct hit on Friday’s SBU headquarters.
President Zelenskiy said a severe shortage of air defense interceptor missiles makes Ukraine vulnerable to ballistic missile attacks.
President Putin said he had ordered a three-day halt to Russian attacks on Kiev to coincide with a U.S. delegation’s visit to Ukraine, but stressed that the two sides had not agreed to a broader ceasefire.
Mr. Zelenskiy met with Mr. Witkov and Mr. Kushner on Saturday and said Ukraine was prepared to suspend attacks on Moscow until Monday.
“From now until the end of Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Ukraine is ready to refrain from attacking Moscow, and we expect Russia to take similar measures regarding Kiev,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
Zelenskiy also said: “We are waiting for Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and are ready for substantive dialogue.”
At the beginning of Saturday’s meeting, President Putin acknowledged the difficulties of the meeting and asked the U.S. delegation to thank President Trump.
“The situation with which we have to deal today is, of course, not a simple one. But before we begin, I would like to convey to President Trump my sincere wishes and words of gratitude,” Putin said.
Witkov also warmly told Putin: “When we retire, we’re going to have all these incredible stories and incredible memories, and you’re going to be on top of them all.”
Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of a Russian sovereign wealth fund and a special Kremlin envoy, also took part in the talks. After the meeting, Dmitriev praised the meeting in a post on X, calling it an “important peace visit.”
President Zelenskiy said early Saturday that Russian missiles had struck two airports near Kiev, including Boryspol, which handled pre-war international flights.
“Clearly, the airport attack by Russia is a reaction to discussions and preparations on the American side regarding the possibility of using aircraft to reach Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
Since the beginning of the war, visiting foreign leaders had commonly traveled from Poland to Kiev by train. It is unclear whether the reported Russian attack will change the U.S. delegation’s plans.
President Trump described Witkoff and Kushner as “great negotiators” at the White House on Friday.
“They have a proposal to end the war,” Trump said, adding, “There may be a good chance we will do it.”
The Kremlin seems less optimistic.
“President Trump himself said yesterday that there is no talk of new ideas. That is a statement from the president of the United States,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked if the U.S. mediators had come up with new proposals to end the war.
Russian officials indicated that the Kremlin’s position remains unchanged.
“The U.S. government needs to take into account the realities on the ground in the settlement issue in Ukraine. The situation is changing and not in Kiev’s favor,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian state media TASS.
A series of important industrial cities in the eastern region of Donetsk have come under increasing threat as Russian forces have gradually advanced in recent months.
Russian attacks continued overnight Friday and Saturday elsewhere in Ukraine, including missile attacks on Black Sea ports and a factory in central Dnipropetrovsk.
Ahead of the US mediator’s visit, Zelenskiy said on Friday:
“Our goal is to have visits and negotiations with the American side that are as constructive and substantive as possible. We need to look for realistic options on how to end this war.”
CNN’s Ivana Kottasova, Victoria Butenko, Jennifer Hansler, Kosta Gaku and Darya Tarasova contributed reporting.
