Late night talk about Ukraine. Putin has already welcomed Trump's emissaries to the Kremlin – VIDEO
Vladimir Putin welcomes the American emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to the Kremlin. Photo credit: Alexander KAZAKOV / AFP / Profimedia
Russian President Vladimir Putin began a meeting with three United States emissaries late on Thursday to discuss a plan to end the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said, according to Reuters.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were accompanied to Moscow by Josh Gruenbaum, recently appointed by President Donald Trump as a senior adviser to his Peace Council, a body tasked with resolving international conflicts.
Putin welcomed the Americans shortly before midnight in Moscow after Trump said Thursday that a deal on the Ukraine war was “pretty close” and Witkoff said negotiations had come down to one final issue.
“There's one more problem to solve,” Trump's emissary announced before heading to Moscow for talks with Putin
The press release issued by the Kremlin states that Vladimir Putin was accompanied, as in previous meetings with the American side, by his foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, and by special envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
A short video clip shows the Russian leader shaking hands with the three American emissaries and inviting them to sit at a long, oval table.
Putin visibly limps as he walks to shake hands with Trump's envoys — Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and FAS Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum. The meeting in Moscow started almost at midnight local time.
A trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi — involving Ukraine, the US, and Russia — is… pic.twitter.com/iUpXFvntAJ
— Kateryna Lisunova (@KaterynaLis) January 22, 2026
The great unsolved problem
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, after talks with his American counterpart Donald Trump in Davos, that the terms of security guarantees for Ukraine have been finalized, but that the vital issue – that of territories – in the war with Russia remains unresolved.
In what he described as a positive sign of progress in long-running peace talks aimed at ending the four-year conflict, Zelenskiy said negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the US would hold their first trilateral meetings in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday.
Direct talks Ukraine – Russia – USA, starting on Friday. What details are known now
The Ukrainian leader also said a deal on post-war economic recovery with Russia was nearing completion, a key element of Kiev-backed proposals to reject an earlier US peace plan seen as heavily favoring Moscow.
“The security guarantees are ready,” he said at a press conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, after meeting with Trump there, adding about these guarantees that “the document must be signed by the parties, by the presidents, and then it will go to the national parliaments” for ratification, namely the Ukrainian parliament and the US Congress.
Zelenski did not provide concrete details about these guarantees.
The leader from Kiev added, however, that the issue of the territories in eastern Ukraine has not yet been resolved.
“Everything revolves around the eastern part of our country. (…) We are all discussing one issue, which is the most difficult and has not yet been resolved. I think that at the trilateral meetings the parties can present each other's proposals. Everything revolves around the territories,” Zelenskiy emphasized, quoted by AFP.
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