U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, carrying an early-stage peace proposal the Trump administration hopes could finally halt the nearly four-year war in Ukraine. In a sign of the high-level push from Washington, Jared Kushner — former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser — will join the talks, which the Kremlin says will take “as long as needed.”
The meeting comes as the administration grows increasingly frustrated with the slow progress of its diplomatic efforts, prompting Trump to deploy multiple envoys across parallel negotiating tracks. While Witkoff heads to the Kremlin, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been holding separate discussions with Ukrainian officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who travelled to Ireland on Tuesday as part of his outreach to European partners, said his team had just met with the Ukrainian delegation returning from negotiations in Florida. Rubio described those meetings as productive but stressed that “more work remains.” Zelenskyy noted that a draft peace framework created earlier in Geneva has now been “finalized,” though he did not clarify what that entails.
Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine is pushing for strong European involvement in the peace talks and warned of Russian attempts to manipulate diplomacy to ease sanctions or weaken EU unity. Ukrainian intelligence, he said, will share information with partners to counter Moscow’s disinformation campaigns. During his visit to Dublin, Zelenskyy highlighted Ireland’s support — despite its official neutrality — and acknowledged the more than 100,000 Ukrainians who have relocated there since the 2022 invasion. European leaders remain wary, concerned both about Russia’s long-term territorial ambitions and the challenge of financing Ukraine’s defence beyond this year.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he and Zelenskyy spoke by phone with Witkoff, as well as with leaders from eight European countries, senior EU officials and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, underscoring the intense diplomatic coordination underway. Still, major obstacles — including the fundamental question of territorial control — remain unresolved, and European officials caution that the path to a negotiated peace will be long and uncertain.
