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Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff landed at Vnukovo International Airport where Kirill Dmitriev Putin’s special envoy greeted them on the tarmac before accompanying the pair to central Moscow for their meeting with the Russian president. This encounter marks the 10th time Witkoff has met Putin in person since assuming a lead role in the Trump administration’s mediation push that began after the president took office for his second term in 2025 according to RFE/RL. The envoys plan to fly onward to Dublin immediately afterward to debrief Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who is attending a gathering of European leaders there CNN reported.
The Abu Dhabi talks that wrapped up on November 11 represented the first direct negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials mediated by the United States in nine months multiple outlets including Al Jazeera and The Moscow Times noted. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators described some movement on postwar security guarantees even though the US side acknowledged that significant gaps remained particularly on the question of territory Reuters reported. A large-scale prisoner exchange emerged as the clearest outcome from those sessions with details expected to be finalised in the coming weeks according to statements from both delegations carried by AFP.
Kyiv has repeatedly rejected Moscow’s demand that Ukraine cede the entire Donbas region as part of any settlement a position reiterated during the latest round according to CNN. With territorial questions deadlocked American mediators have sought to redirect conversations toward reconstruction commitments and mutual security assurances for the period after a potential ceasefire Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Moscow observed. Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky who has led past delegations told state media that exchanges of land were not under consideration in any final deal RFE/RL reported.
After their session with Putin the US envoys will update Zelensky in Ireland where he indicated there could be a window to resolve the conflict before 2027 while voicing ongoing caution an ITV News dispatch stated. One objective in Moscow is to secure Russian agreement to broaden the negotiating table by adding European participants although the Kremlin has so far resisted their inclusion in the core format according to Al Jazeera. Zelensky had earlier described the Abu Dhabi discussions as constructive yet stopped short of predicting an imminent breakthrough BBC coverage showed.
The conflict now spanning four and a half years since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 has withstood several earlier negotiation attempts including rounds in 2022 and early 2026 that produced only limited humanitarian steps a timeline compiled by The Kyiv Independent indicated. President Trump has made ending the war a signature foreign policy goal and has voiced repeated optimism for a comprehensive agreement despite the absence of visible major compromises to date Reuters noted. Intermittent prisoner swaps have taken place throughout the fighting but the scale now under discussion would rank among the largest since the war began according to Ukrainian officials cited by RBC-Ukraine.
Kushner said ahead of the Kremlin meeting that the US team had identified some openings and some opportunities for progress during their discussions with Putin the BBC quoted him as saying. Dmitriev’s direct involvement from the moment of arrival signals that the agenda will extend beyond humanitarian matters into more intricate questions of economic and security architecture an assessment shared by reporting in The Jerusalem Post found. No immediate details from the Putin talks had been released as the meeting got under way around local midday.
