(AFP) – Russian leader Vladimir Putin held around three hours of late-night talks in the Kremlin with US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff on ending over four years of war with Ukraine on Saturday, ahead of their first visit to Kyiv on Sunday. US President Donald Trump has said his son-in-law Kushner and business ally Witkoff were bringing a “proposal” on ending the fighting. Talks ended after just over three hours, past 11.00 pm in Moscow. The envoys are due on Sunday in Ukraine’s capital for the first time, as Washington tries to revive US-led talks to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War Two.
Both Russia and Ukraine agreed not to strike each other’s capitals for three days to allow the negotiations to take place. In televised comments before the closed-door talks began, Putin thanked Trump for “not stopping” to try to end the war — launched by Russia in 2022 — despite it being “not simple.” The Russian leader has repeatedly said Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine, and Washington did not say if its plan involves Kyiv ceding land. The envoys arrived after a summer of escalation that saw a drastic rise in civilian deaths on both sides. The war has killed hundreds of thousands and forced millions of people to flee their homes.
Kyiv said Saturday that Russian strikes had killed 10 people across the country, including a child and his family members in the Kharkiv region and two people outside Kyiv. Putin said Russia would ensure the safety of the envoys in Kyiv — a city Moscow has pounded with deadly strikes throughout the war. “We will do everything that depends on us to ensure the safety of the negotiation process and mediators such as yourselves,” Putin told Witkoff and Kushner.
– Limited truce –
Putin was speaking a day after Kyiv said Moscow had struck the headquarters of its SBU security service in the center of the city. Both Moscow and Kyiv have said they would halt strikes on each other’s cities to allow for negotiations. “The Russian president, the commander-in-chief, has given the order from midnight not to strike Kyiv for three days,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky — who had offered a truce during the US visits — later said he had spoken to the US envoys and also promised Kyiv would not strike Moscow. “From now through the end of Saturday, as well as on Sunday and Monday, Ukraine is ready to refrain from strikes on Moscow,” Zelensky said on social media. On Saturday, Putin said he had “noted that the Ukrainian side significantly reduced” its strikes on Russia and Moscow. Putin also said he had been informed the two US envoys would be heading to Kyiv — their first time for talks in the Ukrainian capital. “In any case, of course, no matter what happens next, contacts of this kind are undoubtedly always beneficial,” he added.
Zelensky has said he expects the US envoys in Kyiv on Sunday. US efforts have so far not led to a breakthrough in the war, which has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. As peace efforts stalled, in part because of Washington’s war with Iran, Moscow and Kyiv stepped up their long-range attacks.
– Russian strikes –
As the US envoys were in the Kremlin, Ukraine said Russian attacks had killed three members of the same family in the city of Chuguiv in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. “As a result of this shelling, almost the entire family was killed: a 19-year-old girl, an 11-year-old boy, and a 45-year-old man,” regional leader Oleg Synegubov said. Earlier Saturday, Russia struck Kyiv’s suburbs and in the Dnipro region, where local officials said five people had been killed.
Zelensky accused Moscow of trying to disrupt the visit of the US envoys with overnight attacks on Kyiv’s two airports, as well as on civilian targets. This will be the first time that Witkoff and Kushner visit Kyiv since Trump returned to office last year with a pledge to resolve the conflict. Traveling to Kyiv by plane would be a highly unusual move, as Ukrainian airspace has been closed since 2022 because of the war. Visiting leaders and officials have generally traveled there by train.
Witkoff and Kushner, who have been involved in negotiations for ceasefires in Gaza and Iran, have traveled repeatedly to Moscow in previous attempts at diplomacy. Their visit comes after a rare trip to Moscow last month by CIA director John Ratcliffe.
© 2024 AFP
