Washington – President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and US special envoy Steve Witkoff are meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, a White House source confirmed, as Mr Trump calls for an end. Fighting in Ukraine.
The meeting comes after US and Ukrainian officials held talks in Florida over the weekend. Witkoff has previously met with Putin, who has turned his attention to Ukraine after he and Kushner helped broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Mr Trump told reporters after the talks on Sunday: “I think we have a good chance of making a deal.”
The US provided support peace proposal last month to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, although there is much more work to be done. Putin described the US proposals as “a set of issues for discussion” rather than a draft agreement. Last week, Mr Trump said there remained “just a few points of disagreement” after a US official and Ukraine’s national security adviser Rustem Umerov said they shared common ground on a proposal. he arriveddetails still to be worked out.
Mr Trump told reporters over the weekend that the plan, which was originally backed by the US 28 pointshas evolved after some said it was skewed to Russia’s preferences, with a provision requiring Ukraine to cede territory it currently controls to Russia.
“They are making concessions,” Mr. Trump told reporters of the Russians. “These are big concessions. They stop fighting, and they don’t take any more land.”
Both of these things will not be taken as a concession by the European leaders, who believe that Russia should return the occupied Ukrainian territory. Ukraine has also pushed for security guarantees as part of any deal to end the war, although Russia has rejected the idea of Ukraine joining NATO, which would force the US and other member states to come to its defense.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was in Florida during the talks with the Ukrainians at the weekend, called the talks with the Ukrainians “another very productive session”, but “there are a lot of mobiles”.
“We don’t just want to end the war. We also want to help Ukraine stay safe forever,” he said. “So they will never face another invasion. And importantly, we want them to enter an era of real prosperity. It’s also about the terms they set for Ukraine’s long-term prosperity.”
On Sunday, Republican Representative Mike Turner of Ohio expressed concern that the White House’s approach may be too pro-Russia.
Asked by CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes if she still had concerns about the plan being too pro-Russian, Turner, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee and formerly chaired the House Intelligence Committee, said, “I think we all have those concerns.” But he added, “one thing I think everybody understands is that you can’t be, you can’t be America First and pro-Russia, because Russia is a self-declared adversary of the United States.”
Peace is far from the reality on the ground in Ukraine, as Russian missiles once again rained down on Kiev over the weekend, CBS News foreign correspondent Holly Williams reports from western Ukraine.
Mr. Trump has heaped praise on Witkoff’s negotiating skills and amiable nature, and has given him an ever-increasing portfolio. The White House did not dispute the released phone transcript Bloomberg last week Witkoff advised senior Putin official Yuri Ushakov on how Putin should approach Mr. Trump in peace negotiations.
“This story proves one thing: Special Envoy Witkoff talks to officials in Russia and Ukraine almost every day to bring about peace, which is exactly what President Trump appointed him to do,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in response to a transcript published by Bloomberg.