Two of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers — real estate executive Steve Witkoff and former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner — reportedly met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday inside the Kremlin, pressing him to support the administration’s updated peace proposal for ending the war in Ukraine.
The high-stakes meeting follows two weeks of intensive diplomacy as the Trump administration works to end a conflict that has drained Western resources and destabilized Europe. While Putin has previously said Trump’s plan could serve as a basis for negotiations, he has also signaled he is unwilling to rethink his most consistent demands.
For Witkoff, this marks his sixth trip to Russia to meet with Putin, but it is the first in-person engagement between Trump’s team and the Kremlin since the Alaska summit in August — and the first time Kushner has joined the talks.
According to two sources familiar with the agenda, Witkoff and Kushner are expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Europe on Wednesday to brief him on the Moscow discussions. Zelensky said Tuesday he anticipates hearing from the pair immediately after their sit-down with Putin.
The revised American peace plan, originally a 28-point framework, has been narrowed to 19 points after negotiations with Ukrainian officials. The U.S. envoys were slated to present those updated terms directly to Putin.
Over the weekend, Witkoff, Kushner, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met in Miami with a Ukrainian delegation led by Zelensky’s national security adviser, Rustem Umerov. The talks focused heavily on the most difficult issue in the proposed deal: the location of a de facto border between Russia and Ukraine.
Putin has repeatedly insisted he will not end the war until Russia controls the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. The U.S. has pressed Kyiv to cede territory as part of a settlement to bring the conflict to a close.
Zelensky said Ukraine’s top general gave the American delegation a detailed briefing on battlefield realities and discussed possible military steps “in the event of a ceasefire.” He also confirmed that the 19-point proposal was “further revised” during the Miami discussions.
Before flying to Moscow, Witkoff held two more rounds of talks with Umerov on Sunday evening and Monday morning.
The Trump administration’s push for a negotiated end to the war signals a decisive shift from years of open-ended Western military support for Ukraine. Whether Putin will accept any version of the plan remains uncertain — but the Kremlin meeting represents the most direct diplomatic pressure the U.S. has placed on Russia since Trump returned to office.
For now, all sides await the outcome of the Moscow talks, which could determine whether the Ukraine conflict moves closer to resolution or deeper into stalemate.
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