Witkoff and Kushner met Putin for five hours on Ukraine plan
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Kushner and Witkoff meet with Putin. Photo: Kremlin Press Office/Anadolu via Getty
President Trump's advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for around five hours in the Kremlin on Tuesday to try to convince him to support the updated U.S. peace plan for Ukraine.
Driving the news: Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the meeting concluded that it had been "useful, constructive and meaningful."
- Ushakov said the U.S. side presented proposals on the issue of territorial control but that no compromise has been reached yet. Putin has publicly insisted that Russia will take the entire Donbas region either through negotiations or by force.
- Ushakov said Putin asked Witkoff and Kushner to convey a number of messages to Trump. "We agreed with our American colleagues not to disclose the substance of the negotiations that took place. The discussion was confidential," Ushakov said.
The big picture: The meeting in Moscow came after two weeks of intense diplomacy around Trump's plan, including two rounds of negotiations between the U.S. and Ukraine.
- Putin previously said Trump's plan could be the basis for negotiations, but made clear Russia's hardline demands for peace had not changed.
The intrigue: This was Witkoff's sixth meeting with Putin in Russia but the first in-person meeting between Putin and Trump's team since the Alaska summit in August. It was also the first time Kushner joined the talks with Putin.
- Witkoff and Kushner are expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday in Europe and brief him on the talks with Putin, according to two sources with knowledge.
- Zelensky said Tuesday that he expected to speak to Witkoff and Kushner right after their meeting with Putin.
- The U.S. envoys were expected to present Putin with the revised U.S. peace plan, which was whittled from 28 points down to 19 during talks with the Ukrainians.
Between the lines: The initial U.S. peace plan was seen by Ukraine and its backers as heavily tilted toward Russia.
- As it became more palatable to the Ukrainians with subsequent revisions, it likely became less attractive to the Russians.
Catch up quick: Witkoff, Kushner and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with a Ukrainian delegation headed by Zelensky's national security adviser Rustem Umerov on Sunday in Miami.
- Those negotiations focused on where the de facto border with Russia would be drawn under a peace deal. Putin insists Russia won't stop the war until it controls the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
- The U.S. wants Ukraine to hand over territory there to convince Putin to make peace, but that would be a painful and politically explosive concession.
- Zelensky said Ukraine's top general briefed the Americans "on the real situation at the front," and discussed "implementing various steps at the front... in the event of a ceasefire." He also said the 19-point plan was "further revised" during the Miami talks.
The latest: While Kushner and Witkoff were preparing to meet Putin in Moscow, Zelensky met with his negotiating team in Dublin. The Ukrainian president said they'd discussed things "that cannot be said over the phone."
- Zelensky said Tuesday that he's ready to meet Trump if the talks in Moscow are successful.
- "The chances now to end the war are better than ever. ... There will be no easy decisions," he said.
Editor's note: This story was updated once the meeting began, and again after it concluded.
