Witkoff, Kushner to meet Putin on Tuesday / “Megaphone diplomacy” hasn't helped so far, Peskov said
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / AP / Profimedia
Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the US president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss a possible solution to end the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II, which his administration describes as a “bloodbath” and “proxy war,” but his efforts so far, including a meeting with Putin in Alaska in August, have yet to bring peace.
A series of 28 preliminary US peace proposals were leaked last week, alarming Ukrainian and European officials who saw them as a concession to Moscow's main claims to NATO, Russia's control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on the Ukrainian military.
European powers then presented their counterproposal for peace, and at the Geneva talks, the US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war.
A fundamental aspect is being ignored in talks about peace in Ukraine, warns a Nobel laureate who insists on working in Russia. “How many faces do I have to show you?”
Peskov: “Megaphone diplomacy” has not helped so far
Putin said the talks so far were not about a draft agreement, but a series of proposals that, he said last week, “could form the basis for future agreements.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told media that Witkoff's meeting with Putin would take place in the second half of Tuesday, but declined to say what Russia's “red lines” were.
Peskov said “megaphone diplomacy” did not help, using the phrase to refer to the use of public statements and pressure instead of private and traditional channels of discussion in diplomacy
Putin has repeatedly stated that he is willing to discuss peace, but that if Ukraine refuses a deal, Russian forces will advance and occupy more Ukrainian territory.
Russian forces control more than 19 percent of Ukraine, or 115,600 square km, up one percentage point from two years ago, and advanced in 2025 at the fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukraine maps.
Russia occupied the largest area of Ukraine this year last month. Steady advance outside the Donbas region
Russian military commanders told Putin on Monday that Russian forces had captured the Ukrainian cities of Pokrovsk and Vovchansk.
Since preliminary US proposals emerged late last month, European powers have scrambled to back Ukraine against what they see as a pro-Russian peace deal that could stymie US investment in Russian oil, gas and rare metals and bring Moscow back into the G8.
Russia's main demands are that Ukraine never join NATO, limitation of the Ukrainian military, Russian control over the entire Donbas, recognition of Russian control over Crimea, Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson, and protection of Russian speakers and Russian Orthodox believers in Ukraine.
Ukraine argues that these demands would amount to a capitulation and leave it vulnerable to a possible takeover by Russia, although the United States has proposed a 10-year security guarantee for Kiev.
Witkoff, Kushner and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security Council, for talks on Sunday at Witkoff's Shell Bay club near Miami.
“We share the view that the war must end fairly,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X after the Paris talks.
Zelenskiy's warning ahead of Trump's emissary Steve Witkoff's visit to the Kremlin at a critical moment in peace talks
