US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met President Vladimir Putin for three hours in Moscow yesterday to discuss the US plan to end the Ukraine war, and the Kremlin said the two sides’ positions had moved closer.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, who took part in the meeting, described it as constructive and very useful.
“This conversation allowed Russia and the United States to further bring their positions closer together, not only on Ukraine but also on a number of other international issues,” he told reporters.
“As for the Ukrainian crisis itself, the discussion focused in particular on the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine.”
Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which started in February 2022.
There was no immediate comment from Witkoff.
The real estate billionaire has emerged as Washington’s key interlocutor with Putin as Trump pushes for a deal to end the war, now well into its fourth year.
His latest trip follows talks this week at which Ukrainian and European officials pushed back against some of the US proposals for how to settle the conflict, the deadliest in Europe since Second World War.
It came a day after Trump criticised a Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv that killed at least 12 people, and posted a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin on social media that read: “Vladimir, STOP!”
Yesterday, Trump told reporters: “I think Russia and Ukraine, I think they’re coming along, we hope.”
Trump has also warned both sides, however, that the US will abandon its effort unless there is genuine progress.
Witkoff, who had no diplomatic experience before joining Trump’s team in January, has been portrayed by critics as out of his depth when pitched into a head-to-head negotiation with Putin, Russia’s paramount leader for the past 25 years.
Video of the start of the meeting showed the American, accompanied only by a translator, seated opposite Putin, Kremlin aide Ushakov and Russian investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev, also with an interpreter.
Witkoff has at times been accused of echoing the Kremlin’s narrative. In an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson last month, for example, Witkoff said there was no reason why Russia would want to absorb Ukraine or bite off more of its territory, and it was 'preposterous' to think that Putin would want to send his army marching across Europe.
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