Witkoff and Kushner Arrive in Moscow for Putin Talks After Abu Dhabi Negotiations End Without Breakthrough

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Thursday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, pressing forward on a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine after two days of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi concluded without a clear breakthrough. Kremlin aide Kirill Dmitriev met the envoys at Vnukovo airport. The Abu Dhabi sessions, the first trilateral negotiations since February, ended in less than two hours on their second day.

Kushner said the two envoys saw "openings and opportunities" from the Abu Dhabi discussions and wanted to relay the substance of those talks directly to Putin. Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov cited progress on security matters but acknowledged "significant differences" remain, while fellow negotiator Davyd Arakhamia called it "one of the toughest" rounds of talks since 2022. Territorial questions remain the hardest sticking point, though the sides agreed on a substantial prisoner exchange.

Separately, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke by phone and discussed a potential three-way summit between their respective leaders and Putin, adding diplomatic momentum to efforts that now span Washington, Beijing, and Moscow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for his part, described the moment as an opportunity.