US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss possible ways to end the deadliest European conflict since World War II.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, which his administration describes as a “bloodbath” and a “proxy war,” but his engagements so far — including a summit with Putin in Alaska in August — have not produced a peace agreement.
A leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals surfaced last week, alarming Ukrainian and European officials who felt the draft conceded to several of Moscow’s core demands, including limits on NATO, Russian control over about a fifth of Ukraine, and curbs on Ukraine’s military. European governments subsequently put forward their own counter-proposal, and at talks in Geneva the US and Ukraine said they had produced an “updated and refined peace framework.”
Putin has said the discussions to date are not a binding agreement but “proposals that could be the basis for future agreements.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Witkoff’s meeting with Putin would occur in the second half of Tuesday, but he declined to outline Russia’s red lines, saying grandstanding was unhelpful. A White House official confirmed Kushner would accompany Witkoff on the trip.
Putin has said he is willing to negotiate, but warned that if Ukraine refuses terms, Russian forces will press on and seize more territory. Russian forces now control more than 19 percent of Ukraine — about 115,600 square kilometres — up one percentage point from two years ago, and pro-Ukrainian maps indicate Russia advanced in 2025 at its fastest pace since 2022. Russian commanders told Putin on Monday that they had captured the frontline towns of Pokrovsk and Vovchansk. US officials estimate more than 1.2 million men have been killed or injured in the war; neither Ukraine nor Russia publishes comprehensive casualty figures.
Since the US draft proposals leaked, European powers have been working to strengthen support for Ukraine against what they view as a punitive, pro-Russian settlement that could open Russia to US investment in oil, gas and rare earths and pave the way for Moscow’s return to the G8. Moscow’s key demands reportedly include a pledge that Ukraine never join NATO, caps on the Ukrainian armed forces, Russian control of the whole of Donbas, formal recognition of Russian control over Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and protections for Russian speakers and Russian Orthodox believers in Ukraine.
Ukraine says such terms would amount to capitulation and leave it vulnerable to further conquest, though the United States has also proposed a 10-year security guarantee for Kyiv. Witkoff, Kushner and Senator Marco Rubio met Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, on Sunday at Witkoff’s Shell Bay club near Miami. After talks in Paris, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted on X: “We share the view that the war must be brought to a fair end.”
Russia sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022. The conflict has roots in 2014, when a pro-Russian Ukrainian president was toppled during the Maidan revolution, Russia annexed Crimea, and Russian-backed separatists began fighting Ukrainian forces in the east.
