U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Thursday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of their latest push for a peace deal in Ukraine.
The Kremlin talks — expected to take place around noon Moscow time — will be the 10th time that Witkoff has met Putin in person, and will follow two days of trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi.
The trilateral talks wrapped up on Wednesday with news of another planned major prisoner exchange, but no public breakthrough in the wider negotiation to end the conflict.
Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev met Kushner and Witkoff on the runway amid wet snow and accompanied them to central Moscow ahead of their talks with Putin.
This week's Abu Dhabi talks were the first direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the U.S. in nine months, and, although Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reported some progress, the U.S. side said differences remained on major issues, including territory.
Despite public optimism from U.S. President Trump, neither side has shown signs of making major compromises.
Kyiv has strongly rejected Putin's demands to surrender the whole of the eastern Donbas region in return for peace, and with talks deadlocked on land, U.S. mediators have tried to steer discussions towards postwar security guarantees and reconstruction.
A senior Russian diplomat said on Wednesday that Moscow could conclude non-aggression pacts with NATO member states as part of a new security architecture for Europe, though many European politicians say they oppose any discussion of Europe's overall security before real progress on Ukraine — including a ceasefire — is made.
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