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US envoy and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are set to travel to Moscow to hold face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Dublin, as the Trump administration steps up efforts to end the nearly five-year Russia-Ukraine conflict.
According to Fox News, Kushner announced the planned visit after discussions on Wednesday, saying that the US envoys saw potential opportunities to make progress on unresolved issues in the negotiations. "Steve and I are going to travel to Moscow tomorrow to meet with President Putin, to go over what was discussed today and try to make more progress on some of the issues that we discussed, because we see some openings and some opportunities there," Kushner said. He added that the two would subsequently travel to Dublin, Ireland, to brief Zelenskyy and discuss further proposals emerging from the talks. "After that, we're going to fly to Dublin. We're going to be with President Zelenskyy to debrief with him and further explore some of the ideas that we came up with here today," he said. Tthe announcement followed two days of negotiations involving Russian, Ukrainian and American delegations in Abu Dhabi, as the Trump administration intensifies diplomatic efforts to secure an end to the conflict. According to CNN, Kushner said that the discussions would focus on advancing humanitarian relief measures and prisoner releases, while also exploring ways to bring European countries into the negotiations. However, Moscow has so far resisted the proposed multilateral format. The US envoys' planned engagement with Putin comes amid growing concerns in European capitals over the Trump administration's approach to negotiations, with CNN reporting that recent announcements by Trump have included significant concessions to Moscow. Meanwhile, as per CNN, Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky offered little indication of any change in Moscow's position following Wednesday's discussions, which concluded in less than two hours. "In some areas, we reached a mutual understanding. In others, we did not. This conversation will, without a doubt, continue," Medinsky said. Ukraine's foreign intelligence chief and chief negotiator Rustem Umerov thanked the US envoys for their efforts, while pointing to progress on certain issues, including security matters, according to CNN. However, differences between the Russian and Ukrainian sides remain. Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia indicated that Moscow had entered the discussions with a firm negotiating position. "I'm in this process since 2022, and I can fairly say that this was one of the toughest ones," Arakhamia said as per CNN, adding that Russia had come to the negotiations with "very strict directives." The planned meetings in Moscow and Dublin are expected to provide an opportunity for the US envoys to convey the outcome of the Abu Dhabi discussions to both leaders and explore possible areas of further progress towards a peace agreement. (ANI)
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