Witkoff and Kushner Ask Putin to Bring Europe into Ukraine Peace Talks
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow on Thursday to press President Vladimir V. Putin to include Europe in negotiations over the war in Ukraine. Their visit followed peace talks in Abu Dhabi between Russian and Ukrainian representatives, who spoke directly for the first time in nine months. After meeting with Putin at the Kremlin, the two envoys were scheduled to travel to Dublin for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
The effort comes as Russia takes a harder line. The Kremlin says negotiations must address its broader demands to redraw Europe’s security architecture, and that it will not consider a cease-fire until those issues are resolved. The Trump administration is pursuing another diplomatic push, partly in search of a foreign-policy success after Republicans’ poor performance in the midterm elections, but Moscow has shown no sign of being ready to halt the war and appears to be reinforcing some of its positions.
At the same time, Russia has intensified attacks on Ukrainian cities ahead of a winter bombing campaign, exploiting Ukraine’s shortages of air defenses. Zelensky said Thursday that Ukrainian forces were again facing restrictions on Starshield, the military version of the Starlink satellite internet network, and had asked the United States for information about the problem.
Continue in the app — vote & join in ➔