US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Donald Trump, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday ahead of plans to travel to Ukraine. The meeting represents the most significant diplomatic effort so far this year to restart peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, who have been at war for over four years.
Putin told the envoys that Russia found it beneficial to work with them and praised contacts between Moscow and Washington. Witkoff conveyed Trump’s best wishes to the Russian president and thanked him for agreeing to a ceasefire during the delegation’s visit. In response, Putin ordered Russian forces to halt strikes on Kyiv for three days starting from midnight, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Trump said the two negotiators were carrying a proposal to end the war. After their Moscow meetings, Witkoff and Kushner are expected to travel to Kyiv on Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of attempting to disrupt the visit by conducting overnight strikes on two Kyiv airports and a civilian target in the Dnipro region that killed five people.