President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, accompanied by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday to promote Trump’s plan for peace in Ukraine.
The Trump plan, originally including 28 distinct points, has already been discussed with Ukrainian and European officials and reportedly whittled down to 20 action items. Ukrainian officials reportedly said last week they would support the revised plan, if Russia also agrees and a few remaining details are worked out.
According to the Kremlin, Putin was joined at his meeting with Witkoff and Kushner by Yury Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian president’s foreign policy and economic aides, respectively.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday morning that Putin and his team were prepared to talk “as long as necessary,” rather than cutting the meeting with Witkoff and Kushner short according to standard diplomatic protocols. Tuesday’s meeting seemed likely to last longer than the two to three hours typical of Witkoff’s earlier talks with Putin.
“We have no doubt that this will be a very important step towards peace and a peaceful settlement,” Peskov said.
Witkoff has met with Putin five times before in his role as emissary for the second Trump administration, beginning in February 2025. Their last encounter, in August 2025, was described as “very productive” by President Trump.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday he was ready to move forward with peace negotiations if Witkoff made progress with Putin.
“Ukraine will be waiting for signals from the American delegation after its meetings in Russia. The U.S. delegation intends to brief us directly immediately after those meetings. The next steps will depend on those signals,” Zelensky said.
”We will receive signals of one kind or another. If the signals work out in a certain way – if it is fair play with our partners – then we may meet with the American delegation very quickly,” he said.
Russian political analyst Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for President Putin, told NBC News that Putin could be ready to offer some compromises for a ceasefire, despite the common perception that everything from battlefield developments to the Ukrainian government’s massive corruption scandal seems to be going his way at the moment. However, the ceasefire might not last for long.
“The most important thing you need to understand is he can’t afford to fall out with Trump. It would be quite suicidal,” Gallyamov said.
“If Trump will really press him, Putin will agree to end the fighting – maybe with the calculation that he will build up strength, quickly organize some sort of provocation in the spring to blame on the Ukrainians and hit again,” he added.
Putin did not sound very conciliatory on Tuesday morning, as he accused the Europeans of sabotaging Trump’s peace plan and warned he was prepared for war if Europe pushes too hard.
“We are not going to fight Europe, I have said this a hundred times. But if Europe suddenly wants to fight and starts, we are ready right now,” he said.
Putin suggested the current attitude of the Europeans would preclude them from playing a role in further negotiations if the meeting with Witkoff went well on Tuesday, unless the Europeans “take into account the realities on the ground” and adjust their expectations accordingly.
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