A plane carrying US Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrives at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Russia, 2 December 2025. Photo: EPA / Maxim Shipenkov
US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Tuesday afternoon for talks with Vladimir Putin aimed at reaching a deal to end the war in Ukraine, state-affiliated news agency Interfax has reported.
The plane carrying the US delegation landed in Moscow at around 2pm, after which Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev at a central Moscow restaurant, state news agency TASS reported, posting footage of the three men leaving the restaurant and taking a stroll on Red Square.
According to Interfax, the talks were expected to start around 5pm, though no announcement has been made about the start of the negotiations at the Kremlin. Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the talks would last “as long as necessary”, without specifying who would be representing Russia alongside Putin.
During talks on Sunday, Washington and Kyiv mainly focused on where the de facto border with Russia would be drawn under a potential peace deal, as Kyiv attempted to broker a more favourable deal for Ukraine, independent news outlet Axios reported on Monday.
“Kyiv’s stance remains unchanged: any territorial discussion must begin from the current line of contact,” Ukrainian outlet RBC-Ukraine reported on Monday, adding that the White House was conscious that in order for the peace process not to collapse, any alteration of the plan to accommodate Ukraine would have to be acceptable to Russia as well.
Witkoff is expected to use Tuesday’s meaning to familiarise Putin with the details of the “refined” version of Trump’s peace plan that was discussed in Florida by US and Ukrainian representatives on Sunday.
Though the US and Ukrainian delegation offered few details of what was agreed during Sunday’s negotiations, the most contentious issues of Trump’s plan, which envisages Ukraine ceding Crimea and Donbas to Russia and amending its constitution to include a commitment not to seek NATO membership, are unlikely to be accepted by both Kyiv and Moscow.
According to independent news outlet Axios, Witkoff and Kushner are expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday to brief him on their talks with Putin.
