Trump envoys meet Putin as Kyiv gets three-day ceasefire

US President Donald Trump’s top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a three-hour closed-door meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin as Washington stepped up diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

The meeting came 11 days after CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow. Witkoff and Kushner are expected to travel to Kyiv after the talks, marking their first visit to the Ukrainian capital as Trump’s representatives to discuss ending the conflict.

A Kremlin video released Saturday showed Putin welcoming the two US envoys. Describing the situation as “not very simple”, Putin thanked Trump for maintaining contact and said such communication was “always useful”.

Witkoff, meanwhile, thanked Putin for agreeing with Ukraine to suspend attacks on each other’s capitals for three days.

Putin said he felt “comfortable” working with the US representatives and expressed a high level of trust in them.

The talks come as Washington seeks a breakthrough in the conflict, which has continued despite months of diplomatic efforts. Trump said Friday that Witkoff and Kushner were travelling with a proposal aimed at ending the war.

Details of the Kremlin talks were not immediately disclosed, and it remained unclear whether the sides had reached any agreement. Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov described the meeting as “constructive and very candid”.

Ushakov said the discussions covered not only ways to resolve the Ukraine conflict but also economic issues and potential major Russian-US projects that could benefit both sides. He said the talks also took into account Russia’s battlefield gains and the need for further negotiations to address what Moscow calls the “root causes” of the conflict.

Russia has controlled roughly one-fifth of Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russian forces have made relatively slow advances for much of the war while suffering heavy losses, despite recent missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine is preparing to receive the US delegation. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv was ready for “productive talks” with Witkoff and Kushner.

To facilitate the talks and ensure the safety of the visiting envoys, Putin ordered a halt to attacks on Kyiv from Saturday through Monday. He made clear, however, that the order did not apply to other parts of Ukraine outside the capital.

How the US representatives will travel from Moscow to Kyiv remains unclear, as Ukraine’s airspace has been closed since the start of the full-scale war.