Russian President Vladimir Putin began talks with U.S. special representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on Saturday, according to video published on the Kremlin’s channel on the MAX messaging app.
Putin described the situation he and the U.S. envoys would have to address during the negotiations as “difficult,” as Washington launched another effort to revive stalled talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin for talks on ending the war in Ukraine, December 2025
(צילום: Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL / AFP)
Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a frequent negotiator for the administration, arrived in Moscow with expectations low and the gap between Russia and Ukraine still wide.
The meeting comes at a difficult moment for the diplomatic push, with little sign that Moscow and Kyiv have narrowed their core differences. Russia continues to demand that Ukraine surrender additional territory, while Kyiv rejects terms it considers tantamount to capitulation.
Witkoff and Kushner are also expected to travel to Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as part of the renewed U.S. effort to determine whether either side is prepared to soften its position.
The trip marks another attempt to restart U.S.-mediated negotiations that have largely stalled in recent months despite repeated contacts among American, Russian and Ukrainian officials.
One of the central obstacles remains territory. Putin has continued to insist that Ukraine concede additional land in the Donbas as part of any settlement, while Kyiv has rejected surrendering territory that Russian forces have not captured.
Moscow also believes it retains military leverage and has shown little public willingness to abandon its core demands. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, have argued that any agreement must include credible security guarantees and cannot simply reward Russian territorial gains.
The renewed diplomatic push comes amid continued long-range attacks by both sides. Ukraine has stepped up strikes on Russian oil facilities and other infrastructure, while Russia has continued missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure.
Putin nevertheless struck a warmer tone toward Witkoff and Kushner ahead of the meeting, portraying them as close to Trump and as serious interlocutors, even as he continued to use harsh language toward the Ukrainian leadership.
Washington is attempting to create enough diplomatic space for another round of negotiations, but the central disputes remain largely unchanged: control of occupied Ukrainian territory, the future of the Donbas and the security arrangements that would accompany any ceasefire or broader settlement.
The expected stop in Kyiv will give Witkoff and Kushner an opportunity to test whether Ukraine sees any room for compromise after hearing Moscow’s position directly.
For now, however, the negotiations appear to remain at an exploratory stage, with Putin himself signaling at the outset that the issues on the table would be anything but easy.