Putin Holds 3-Hour Talks with U.S. Envoys... U.S.: "Next Phase in Weeks," Russia: "Very Productive"

Trump Takes 'New Peace Proposal' to Moscow, but Concrete Agreement Remains Undisclosed
Witkoff and Kushner Head to Kyiv on the 6th
Russia and Ukraine Temporarily Halt Attacks on Each Other’s Capitals

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's eldest son-in-law Jared Kushner to discuss ways to end the war in Ukraine for over three hours. The United States announced that the next phase of follow-up negotiations would be disclosed in the coming weeks, and Russia described the talks as "very productive." However, no specific agreements or breakthroughs were released.

On the 5th (local time), Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes the U.S. delegation at the Kremlin. Photo by Sputnik Pool/AP Yonhap News Agency

According to reports from AP and Reuters on the 5th (local time), President Putin held a closed-door meeting at the Kremlin with Special Envoy Witkoff and Kushner for more than three hours. Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s foreign policy aide, stated after the meeting that the U.S. delegation "presented several ideas for possible agreements" and that the talks were "constructive, candid, and very productive."

The White House also hinted that progress was made in the negotiations. A White House official said that the U.S. delegation discussed "substantive plans for the next phase" with the Russian side and that specific follow-up actions would be announced within the next few weeks. However, the official did not disclose which conditions for ending the war were discussed.

Before the Moscow visit, President Trump had stated that the United States had a new "concrete proposal" to end the war. The Financial Times (FT) also reported that Special Envoy Witkoff and Kushner visited Moscow carrying the U.S. proposal for ending the war.

The U.S. delegation also included officials from the National Security Council (NSC), the State Department, and the Treasury Department. According to internet media Axios, Jean Lang, the Treasury Department official in charge of sanctions, also traveled to Moscow and held preliminary discussions with Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian presidential envoy. However, Lang did not attend the main meeting with President Putin. Axios reported that the presence of a senior Treasury official indicated that the issue of sanctions against Russia was part of the negotiation agenda.

Aide Ushakov also stated that the talks covered not only the war in Ukraine, but also bilateral economic issues and large-scale Russian-U.S. joint projects that could be mutually beneficial, with a considerable level of detail. President Putin reiterated his stance that "all root causes" of the war must be addressed for an end to be reached, emphasizing that the Russian military is making "substantial progress" on the battlefield.

Around the time of the negotiations, Russia and Ukraine agreed to temporarily suspend attacks targeting each other’s capitals. President Putin ordered Russian forces not to attack Kyiv for three days to ensure the safety of the U.S. delegation, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also announced readiness to suspend attacks on Moscow until the 7th.

Recently, however, both sides had in fact escalated long-range attacks. Russia, for nearly ten days, had been concentrating missile and drone strikes on Kyiv, and on the 4th, the headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was hit by a Russian drone. Ukraine, for its part, continued attacks on Russian oil refineries, oil terminals, and other rear infrastructure facilities.

American mediation for an end to the war had effectively stalled since February. Axios reported that direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine had been suspended for about six months and that the focus of U.S. diplomatic resources on the war with Iran caused the momentum in peace talks for Ukraine to be lost. These back-to-back visits to Moscow and Kyiv are interpreted as an attempt by the Trump administration to restart negotiations.

However, a significant gap remains between the positions of Russia and Ukraine regarding the terms for ending the war. The Kremlin reaffirmed its unchanged stance that Ukraine must give up the entire four regions—Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson—which Russia claims to have annexed, and must also abandon its pursuit of NATO membership. Ukraine rejects these terms, calling them a virtual demand for surrender.

Special Envoy Witkoff and Kushner left Moscow immediately after the talks and are scheduled to meet with President Zelensky in Kyiv on the 6th. This is the first time both are visiting Kyiv in person for peace negotiations. Axios reported that this visit marks the highest-level visit by a U.S. official to Ukraine since the start of President Trump’s second term.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.