US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, November 12, as Washington continues its mediation efforts in the Russia-Ukraine war, Axios reported. They are then expected to travel to Dublin for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that night.
According to sources cited by Axios, the envoys will renew President Donald Trump's call for Russia to put forward a proposal for a new security agreement with Europe. The proposed arrangement would encompass measures intended to reduce tensions between Russia and other European countries.
Washington has previously opposed Russian demands for a security agreement that would reduce NATO's military presence in Eastern Europe. Axios reported that the US now appears more receptive to those demands as Trump seeks to help end the war. Many European governments, however, distrust the administration's approach to a potential agreement, according to the report.
The planned meetings follow discussions earlier this week in Abu Dhabi, where Russian and Ukrainian officials met with US mediators for the first time since February. Speaking to reporters, Trump said he saw a strong willingness to bring the conflict to an end and pointed to US involvement in the process. He added: "Both sides are tired of fighting."
Those talks ended on Wednesday. Kushner described the exchanges afterward, saying: "We had pretty tough discussions." A source speaking to Axios said the atmosphere was initially tense but became more constructive after the parties had each presented their positions.
A US official told Reuters that negotiations would require time, while expressing "cautious optimism that progress could be made." The official said both sides were privately indicating some scope for compromise. Any agreement on territory would probably come near the end of negotiations, after other matters, including postwar security arrangements, had been settled.
Trump also said last week that he had held a private meeting with Putin's envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, and suggested that an agreement to resolve the conflict could be reached soon. In remarks to reporters at the White House, he claimed the war was nearing a settlement and said bringing it to an end could involve all of Europe.
When he took office in 2025, Trump pledged to help bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to an end. The expected Moscow and Dublin meetings come as his administration pursues further discussions with both sides.
