The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, opened negotiations on Ukraine this Saturday with the White House emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who arrived in Moscow during the day sent by the US president, Donald Trump.
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“The situation we are going to address today is not, of course, easy,” Putin said at the beginning of the meeting, in which he greeted his interlocutors in English: “Welcome. Nice to meet you.”
The Russian leader pointed out, however, that this type of contact is always beneficial. He also indicated that “first of all” he wanted to convey “best wishes” and “words of thanks” to Trump.
Witkoff, meanwhile, informed him that the US president also sent his best wishes and thanked the release of Robert Gilman from his family.
The meeting is taking place in the Grand Kremlin Palace and also includes the participation of the Kremlin’s international policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov, and the presidential envoy for economic cooperation with the United States, Kiril Dmitriev.
The US representatives arrived shortly after noon in Moscow. During the day, Putin maintained a tight schedule due to Moscow Day and other electoral events, two weeks before Russia holds legislative elections.
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The meeting is the first since January and takes place less than two weeks after the visit to Moscow of the CIA director, John Ratcliffe.
After the meeting, Witkoff and Kushner will travel to Kiev, where they will be received for the first time by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenski.
With the aim of facilitating the arrival of the US mediators, Putin and Zelenski, who had proposed the measure, ordered a three-day ceasefire of airstrikes against the capitals of their enemy, Kiev and Moscow.
Trump stated that his envoys “carry with them a proposal to end the war” and added: “Because I ended eight wars.”
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