Witkoff, Kushner Meet Putin to Restart Ukraine Peace Talks — SkimNews
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- Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin Saturday for three hours to discuss U.S. proposals for ending the Ukraine war, with a White House official saying officials from the NSC, State, and Treasury joined and that 'substantive plans for next steps' will be announced in the coming weeks.
- Vladimir Putin told the envoys he has 'full trust' in U.S. mediation and agreed to halt Russian airstrikes starting midnight Saturday Moscow time; Ukraine also reduced its strikes, in what Witkoff and Kushner brokered to allow the Moscow-Kyvisit to proceed.
- Steve Witkoff thanked Putin for releasing ex-U.S. Marine Robert Gilman, tying a prisoner release to securing the negotiation window.
- Acting Treasury sanctions czar Gene Lange joined the trip and held a preparatory meeting with Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev — a signal that sanctions relief was on the table, even as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told his Russian counterpart at last week's G20 Finance Ministers meeting that the U.S. will not offer Russia economic relief until it ends the war.
- The Kremlin talks came as Russia dramatically escalated drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, including strikes on Kyiv and other major cities, even as the two sides sat down to negotiate.
- Witkoff and Kushner are expected in Kyiv Sunday to push for a resumption of direct Russia-Ukraine talks, which have been frozen for roughly six months as fighting has escalated heading into winter.
Why it matters: This is the first high-stakes U.S.-Russia engagement on Ukraine since talks collapsed months ago, and the Kremlin's agreement to a pause — however temporary — plus the inclusion of Treasury's sanctions czar means economic leverage is now explicitly on the negotiating table. If Sunday's Kyiv visit produces a framework announcement, it would mark the most concrete U.S. diplomatic progress on the war since Trump returned to office, but Russia's simultaneous escalation of strikes shows Putin is bargaining from continued battlefield pressure, not goodwill.
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