This Sunday, the two American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected in Ukraine for the first time, carrying, according to President Donald Trump, a proposal aimed at ending the conflict with Russia, after having met Vladimir Putin in Moscow the day before.
The Russian president spoke for three hours Saturday evening with Mr. Witkoff, a businessman close to Mr. Trump, and Mr. Kushner, the American president’s son-in-law, a conversation that Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov described as “constructive, extremely frank and imbued with confidence.”
“The American representatives prepared meticulously for this trip. They not only reiterated their usual interest in a swift end to hostilities, but they also presented a number of ideas on possible paths leading to a settlement,” said Mr. Ushakov to journalists.
“The Russian side said that it was confident in achieving the objectives set,” he added, without revealing the objectives in question.
A White House spokesperson later told AFP that the two envoys “discussed substantive plans for the next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks.”
“The situation is, of course, not simple,” the Russian president told the two envoys in a vast hall of the Kremlin, according to footage broadcast by Russian television.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, it had been considered at one point that Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff, for whom this would be their first visit to Ukraine, would travel directly from Moscow to Kyiv by plane, which would have been exceptional.
The American government plane carrying the two envoys finally landed in the early hours of Sunday in Rzeszów, Poland, near the Ukrainian border, according to the FlightRadar24 aviation tracking site.
People heading to Ukraine typically take the train from neighboring countries, as Ukrainian airports have been closed since the start of the war.
