U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow Thursday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin following productive trilateral negotiations in Abu Dhabi on ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
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 the exact details have not been shared.
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.
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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.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy supports Europe joining the conversation.
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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