Trump envoy to meet with Putin as US pushes to end war in Ukraine
- Putin war talks:US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow today. The Kremlin said Moscow is open to peace talks, but its war goals must be achieved, raising doubts about Russia’s readiness to end the conflict.
- Kyiv shores up support: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyspoke with the leaders of allies Britain and France, along with Witkoff, yesterday ahead of the Moscow talks. Zelensky is in Dublin today, where he will discuss trade and security with Irish leaders.
- On the ground: Russia claims to have captured Pokrovsk, a key eastern Ukrainian city,though Ukraine dismissed what it said were “loud statements” by Moscow aimed at influencing negotiations.
President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Monday at government buildings in Dublin as part of his first official state visit to Ireland. The Ukrainian leader is there to meet with Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Micheál Martin and other high-ranking Irish officials.
The pair are signing an initiative outlining Ireland’s commitments to supporting Ukraine for the next five years. This agreement includes a further €100 million ($116 million) in non-lethal military support for Ukraine, according to an Irish government press release. A separate fund of €25 million ($29 million) has been allocated to restoring and supporting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure which has been the target of multiple Russian attacks during the war.
After he wraps up his meeting with the Irish prime minister, Zelensky is set to address the Irish parliament. This will mark the second time he addresses the parliament, having previously done so in April 2022.
Ahead of Putin-Witkoff meeting, Kremlin says peace talks must address Russia’s core demands
Just hours before key US-Russia talks in Moscow, the Kremlin reiterated its position that any peace deal on Ukraine must resolve what it describes as the “initial causes” or “underlying reasons” for its invasion — shorthand for a longstanding list of demands that has included a halt to NATO expansion, recognition of Russia’s claimed control over occupied Ukrainian regions and the effective end of Ukraine as a sovereign state.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov praised the Trump administration’s mediation efforts as “very effective” ahead of Tuesday’s meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Putin is expected to discuss the understandings reached between Washington and Kyiv as part of ongoing negotiations on Tuesday afternoon.
“(President) Trump’s plan is a very good basis (for a peace settlement), and we hope we can adhere to this basis,” Peskov said, according to state news agency TASS. But he stressed that Moscow will only agree to peace if it secures the objectives of its war in Ukraine which it calls “the special military operation”: “We must achieve our goals, and we must eliminate the initial causes of the military operation that we launched.”
“We want peace,” Peskov added, “Why aren’t we concluding a peace agreement immediately? It is very difficult. There were underlying reasons for our president’s decision to launch the special military operation. And first, we must reach an agreement that addresses those underlying reasons.”
Two key sticking points loom over today’s talks
Analysis by Matthew Chance, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are in Moscow for a day of intensive diplomacy aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
Their main challenge: convincing Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to consider potential concessions, explored with Ukrainian negotiators in recent talks, which could form the basis of a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
There are multiple issues at stake but two key sticking points loom over the talks: Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO and Russian demands for territory in the Donbas region, which it has annexed but not yet conquered, to be surrendered.
Exact details of what Witkoff and Kushner will offer the Kremlin have not been made public. But it’s understood that potential work-arounds that would effectively block Ukrainian NATO membership and offer Russia territorial gains have been hammered out, though not yet finalized, with Ukrainian negotiators.
The big question is whether Putin, who has so far refused to back away from his maximalist demands, will view what is being offered as a victory that meets his military and political objectives, or decide to press ahead.
