Witkoff and Kushner to meet Putin for Ukraine talks
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a possible way to end the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, which his administration has called a “bloodbath” and “proxy war,” but his efforts so far, including a summit with Putin in Alaska in August, have yet to bring peace.
A draft of 28 leaked US peace proposals emerged last week, frightening Ukrainian and European officials who felt it capitulated to Moscow’s core demands for NATO, Moscow’s control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on the Ukrainian military.
European powers later presented their counteroffers for peace, and at talks in Geneva the United States and Ukraine said they had established an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war.
Putin said the talks so far were not about a draft agreement but about a set of proposals that he said last week “could become the basis for future agreements.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Witkoff’s meeting with Putin would be in the second half of Tuesday, but he refused to draw on Russia’s red lines, saying megaphone diplomacy was not useful.
A White House official said that Kushner will also join Witkoff during his visit to Russia.
Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to talk peace, but if Ukraine rejects the deal, Russian forces will advance further and seize more Ukrainian territory.
Russian forces control more than 19 percent of Ukraine and made the fastest advance in 2025 since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.
Russian military commanders told Putin on Monday that Russian forces had captured the frontline Ukrainian towns of Pokrovsk and Vovchansk.
U.S. officials say more than 1.2 million men were killed or wounded in the war. Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses their losses.
Since draft U.S. proposals emerged late last month, European powers have been scrambling to support Ukraine against what they see as a pro-Russian punitive peace that could open Russia up to U.S. oil, gas and rare earth investments and return Moscow to the G8.
Russia’s main demands include a commitment that Ukraine will never join NATO, limitation of the Ukrainian army, Russian control of all of Donbas, recognition of Russian control over Crimea, Donbas, Zaporozhia and Kherson, and protection of Russian speakers and Russian Orthodox believers in Ukraine.
Ukraine says these would amount to surrender and eventually leave Russia vulnerable to invasion; However, the US has also offered a 10-year security guarantee for Kyiv.
Witkoff, Kushner and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Ukrainian national security council secretary Rustem Umerov for a meeting on Sunday at Witkoff’s Shell Bay club near Miami.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his statement on the X channel after the talks in Paris, said, “We share the view that the war should end justly.” he said.
Putin sent thousands of soldiers to Ukraine in February 2022.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution overthrew a pro-Russian president and Russia annexed Crimea, and Russian-backed separatist forces fought Ukrainian armed forces.
