MOSCOW (The Thursday Times) — US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow early on Thursday for talks with President Vladimir Putin, a day after Ukrainian and Russian negotiators ended two days of US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi without a breakthrough on ending the war.
The two were met at Vnukovo airport by Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special representative, Russian news agencies reported. Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, said the meeting with Putin was set for Thursday morning, after which the envoys are due to fly to Dublin to brief Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Abu Dhabi talks, the first between the two delegations since February, produced an agreement in principle on a large prisoner exchange, but little else. Kushner said he and Witkoff want to widen the negotiating format so that European governments take part in a lasting multilateral peace process.
A window, with doubts
Speaking in Dublin on Wednesday alongside Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Zelenskyy said there was a “window of opportunity” to reach peace before 2027, though he said he remained “sceptical”.
“We are living through these massive attacks. Of course, we want to get results by the end of this year, and of course, we will be doing everything to make that happen,” he said, adding that much would depend on the tone of the American and Russian meeting in Moscow.
He linked the opening partly to political change in the United States after last week’s midterm elections, and said Washington was increasingly open to Europe joining the talks. “We want Europe to be not there on the margins, not on the sidelines of the meetings,” he said, urging European leaders to choose who would represent them by the end of November.
Territory still the hardest issue
Kushner has said territory remains the most difficult question, with Russia demanding that Ukraine give up the parts of the eastern Donetsk region it still holds and Kyiv wanting to freeze the front line. Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said steps towards a broader deal and post-war reconstruction were also discussed in Abu Dhabi.
Fighting continued around the talks. Ukrainian officials reported fresh Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, and Russian authorities said a serviceman was killed in a car explosion in Saint Petersburg.
The Moscow meeting comes as Washington is also weighing direct talks with Iran.
