US envoys Witkoff and Kushner land in Moscow for Putin talks on European security as Kyiv rejects Donbas demands

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow through wet snow Thursday morning for high-stakes Kremlin talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, pressing a rapid shuttle-diplomacy bid to break the territorial deadlock in Ukraine and bring European governments into formal peace negotiations.

Russian presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev greeted Witkoff and Kushner — President Donald Trump’s son-in-law — at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport before accompanying their motorcade into central Moscow ahead of Kremlin discussions alongside presidential foreign-policy aide Yury Ushakov. Thursday’s session marks the 10th time Witkoff has met Putin in person during Washington’s mediation campaign.

The Kremlin visit comes less than 24 hours after two days of U.S.-brokered trilateral talks among American, Russian, and Ukrainian delegations wrapped up in Abu Dhabi — the first direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv in nine months. While those UAE sessions produced an agreement in principle on what Kushner called the war’s largest humanitarian prisoner release, negotiators left without a ceasefire or breakthrough on eastern Ukrainian territory.

Push to bring European allies into a broader security framework

Speaking ahead of Thursday’s Kremlin meeting, Kushner said a central objective in Moscow is securing Putin’s agreement to seat European leaders at the next round of talks — a step Kyiv and Washington favor after G7 and European diplomatic consultations earlier this week, but one Moscow has repeatedly resisted.

“We need the Europeans to sit at the negotiating table,” Kushner said, according to Politico. “We have repeatedly conveyed directly to President Putin and his team that the only way to achieve results is to have them around, and I think they are receptive to this.”

With talks deadlocked over borders, U.S. mediators have sought to widen discussions toward postwar security guarantees, reconstruction financing, and a new European security architecture. A senior Russian diplomat indicated Wednesday that Moscow would consider mutual non-aggression pacts with NATO member states as part of a broader continental framework, while Finnish President Alexander Stubb suggested four-party talks involving Russia, the United States, Ukraine, and European representatives could take place within two weeks depending on the Kremlin’s response. Several European capitals, however, have warned against negotiating wider European security terms before Russia halts hostilities in Ukraine.

Kyiv holds firm on Donbas ahead of Friday talks in Dublin

Territorial demands remain the sharpest fault line. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has flatly rejected Kremlin demands that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the entirety of the eastern Donbas region — as well as proposals to redraw administrative boundaries in Donetsk and Luhansk — in exchange for a halt to fighting.

Even as Witkoff and Kushner landed in Moscow, combat continued unabated overnight. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday morning its forces carried out long-range missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian military-industrial sites, ammunition depots near Kyiv, energy infrastructure — including confirmed damage in the Zhytomyr region — and a dry-cargo vessel in the Black Sea, while claiming Russian air defenses intercepted 71 Ukrainian drones overnight, including five approaching Moscow.

From the Kremlin, Witkoff and Kushner are scheduled to travel to Dublin on Friday to brief Zelenskyy and European leaders directly on Putin’s response and finalize terms for the upcoming prisoner exchange.