Russian President Vladimir Putin met US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow on Saturday as Washington renewed efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.
Witkoff and Kushner arrived in Moscow earlier in the day to discuss a US-backed proposal aimed at ending the conflict. “The situation is of course not simple,” Putin told the two envoys, according to footage broadcast by Russian state media.
The US representatives, who were dispatched by President Donald Trump, are expected to travel to Kyiv after their Moscow meetings in the latest American effort to break the diplomatic deadlock surrounding Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of attempting to undermine the envoys’ visit by carrying out overnight strikes on Kyiv’s two airports and attacking a civilian target in the Dnipro region, where five people were reported killed.
Zelensky said the strikes appeared to be linked to discussions over the possible use of an aircraft to transport the US envoys to Ukraine. He stressed that Kyiv would pose “no threats to diplomacy”.
The visit would mark the first trip to war-torn Kyiv by Witkoff and Kushner since Trump returned to the White House last year and pledged to seek an end to the conflict.
A visit by air would be highly unusual because Ukrainian airspace has remained closed since Russia’s invasion in 2022. Foreign leaders and senior officials travelling to Ukraine have generally used rail routes.
The US envoys are expected to reach Kyiv on Sunday, according to a senior Ukrainian official cited by AFP. Trump said the two negotiators would assess whether meaningful progress towards a peace agreement was possible.
“We have an idea for peace,” Trump said, adding that Witkoff and Kushner were carrying a proposal intended to end the war. He declined to say whether the plan included territorial concessions by Ukraine, an option he has previously suggested.
Witkoff and Kushner have played roles in US diplomatic efforts involving ceasefires in Gaza and Iran and have made several previous trips to Moscow as part of Washington’s attempts to advance negotiations.
The renewed diplomatic initiative comes as Russia and Ukraine continue to exchange long-range missile and drone strikes, with civilian casualties rising amid the intensification of attacks.
Hours before Trump announced the envoys’ mission, Zelensky said a Russian drone had struck the headquarters of Ukraine’s SBU security service in central Kyiv. He said the attack targeted the office of the agency’s acting chief and marked the first strike on the headquarters since the start of Russia’s invasion.
Despite the attack, Zelensky proposed a temporary ceasefire for the duration of the US envoys’ visit, calling on Russia to reciprocate.
“There will be no airstrikes on our part,” he said, urging Moscow to halt its own air operations for as long as necessary to allow the talks to take place. Russia had not immediately responded to the proposal.
Later, Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said a Russian strike on the southeastern city of Kamianske killed four people and wounded five others.
The latest US diplomatic effort follows a rare visit to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe more than a week earlier. US media reported that Ratcliffe had warned Russia against attacking Nato member states.
Earlier this week, Washington also hosted Russia’s finance minister at a G20 gathering in North Carolina, marking another high-level contact between the two countries amid ongoing efforts to address the conflict.
