U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday for a discussion following what were described as productive trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, aimed at negotiating an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
The envoys went directly from the airport to the meeting with Mr. Putin, which lasted just over two hours.
“I think progress was made today,” Mr. Witkoff told reporters as he boarded a plane to Dublin for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “This is what President Trump wants to see.”
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He said they had reached an agreement with Mr. Putin on the details of the prisoner exchange with Ukraine.
Mr. Putin, in opening remarks, thanked the diplomats and confirmed that both sides had made progress toward an agreement on prisoner exchanges but did not go into detail.
U.S. diplomats mediated two days of talks in the Gulf between Russian and Ukrainian representatives. Both sides ultimately agreed to what has been described as a massive prisoner swap, though they have not shared the exact details.
Part of the Kushner-Witkoff mission is to determine those details and press Mr. Putin to agree to further peace talks with Ukraine and perhaps to allow European leaders a seat at the negotiating table.
Mr. Witkoff said Mr. Putin had agreed to European participation in the next round of negotiations, which do not have a set date.
“The Europeans will join at the next meeting, which we consider to be a very important moment because they are our partners and it’s important to us that they take part,” he said.
Russian officials have rejected letting Europe participate in talks, arguing that they haven’t presented a formal proposal to Moscow and that their financial support for Ukraine is causing the slowdown in diplomacy.
Mr. Zelenskyy supports Europe joining the conversation. He met with a collection of European leaders for a multilateral session on Thursday in Dublin to discuss how to improve support for Ukraine amid further Russian attacks.
But the U.S. envoys are seeking, in addition to a peace deal, an agreement that would provide Ukraine with postwar security agreements that could include European powers. U.S. officials told reporters on Monday that they hoped to get Russia to agree to protection for Ukraine similar to NATO Articles 4 and 5.
However, one of Russia’s primary motivators for invading in 2022 was its belief that Ukraine would soon join NATO, putting an alliance member on its border.
While the talks in the United Arab Emirates were intended to focus primarily on postwar agreements, there was no apparent breakthrough on such issues on Wednesday.
Still, Mr. Kushner described the talks as productive and said he and Mr. Wtikoff were dedicated to continuing the conversation shortly.
After their meeting with Mr. Putin, the diplomats are expected to travel to Dublin to talk with Mr. Zelenskyy.
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