US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are in Moscow this week for a new
round of talks with Vladimir Putin, in what Washington is calling the most
consequential push yet to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting, confirmed in the
past few hours by multiple US and European outlets, comes just two weeks before
President Donald Trump’s self-imposed November 27 deadline for a deal.
After an initial 28-point framework drew sharp pushback from Kyiv and European
capitals, US and Ukrainian negotiators pared the plan down to 19 points. The
revised draft is now the document Witkoff and Kushner are carrying into the
Kremlin. According to the briefings leaking out of Washington, the sticking points
have not changed: whether Ukraine will be asked to cede territory in the Donbas,
and what security guarantees it will get in return.
Trump has told advisers he will walk away from the process entirely if Volodymyr
Zelenskyy does not sign on by month’s end. From Moscow, Witkoff and Kushner are
expected to fly to Dublin or Kyiv to brief the Ukrainian president directly. European
leaders, briefed overnight, are watching nervously. Berlin, Paris and Warsaw have
all said in the last 24 hours that no deal can be imposed on Ukraine over its own
objections.
Putin, for his part, is arriving at the table from a position he believes is strong.
Russian forces have continued to grind forward in the Donbas in recent weeks, and
the Kremlin’s public message has been that any ceasefire must lock in Russia’s
current battlefield gains. A short statement released by his spokesman Dmitry
Peskov said Russia was open to a serious conversation but would not accept
conditions that ignore the realities on the ground.
The optics are striking. Kushner, officially a private citizen, has become one of
Trump’s most trusted back-channel operators. Witkoff, the real-estate developer
turned special envoy, has already met Putin multiple times in the past year. Their presence together signals that the White House wants a deal badly — and is willing
to bypass the traditional State Department process to get one.
For ordinary Ukrainians, the mood is grim. In Kyiv overnight, air-raid sirens
sounded again. In Moscow, state television led with images of Witkoff stepping off
his plane. The next 48 hours, Western diplomats say privately, may decide whether
the war enters a negotiated endgame or grinds on through another winter.
What to watch next: a readout from the Kremlin after the meeting ends, Zelenskyy’s
response once he has been briefed by the US team, and whether European capitals
formally endorse — or distance themselves from — the revised 19-point plan.
Trump is expected to speak publicly about the talks later today from Washington.
