Putin Meets Trump Envoys for Ukraine Peace Talks — SkimNews
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- Putin met US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on Saturday for talks on a Trump proposal to end the Ukraine war, with the delegation expected to travel to Kyiv on Sunday.
- Russia ordered a three-day pause on strikes against Kyiv from midnight Saturday, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the order came directly from Putin as commander-in-chief.
- Zelenskyy pledged Ukraine would refrain from striking Moscow from Saturday through Monday and said he had spoken directly with the US envoys ahead of their Kyiv visit.
- Russian strikes on Ukraine earlier Saturday killed at least seven people including in the Kyiv suburbs, hours before the announced pause took effect.
- Witkoff and Kushner are making their first visit to Kyiv since Trump returned to office last year, when he pledged to resolve the four-year conflict that began with Russia's 2022 invasion.
- Putin told the envoys to convey his gratitude to Trump while reiterating that Moscow intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine, signaling his war aims have not softened.
Why it matters: Russia and Ukraine's three-day capital-strike pause gives Witkoff and Kushner a narrow diplomatic window — but Russian strikes killed at least seven Ukrainians on Saturday alone, and Putin publicly reaffirmed his goal of seizing the rest of eastern Ukraine, meaning the envoys are negotiating with a leader whose stated maximalist aims haven't changed despite the tactical de-escalation.
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