MOSCOW: Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday (Dec 2) for high-stakes talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
The meeting – preceded by days of frenzied diplomacy from Florida to Geneva to Abu Dhabi – comes as Washington said it was “very optimistic” about ending Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
But Kyiv and its European allies worry that Witkoff, who has been criticised for his dealings with the Kremlin, will yet cede ground to Moscow.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Ireland on Tuesday, shoring up European support, with the US-Russia meeting coming at a critical point for Kyiv.
Russian forces have advanced fast in November in eastern Ukraine, and Kyiv has been rocked by graft scandals that ended with the resignation of its top negotiator – Zelenskyy’s right-hand man.
Moscow has also stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, with Zelenskyy accusing the Kremlin of trying to “break” his country.
In Ireland, Zelenskyy was briefed by Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov returning from Florida, who said “significant progress” was achieved in US talks but that more work was needed on “challenging” issues.
Zelenskyy has said he still expects to discuss key issues with the US president, including on territory, security guarantees and Ukraine’s reconstruction.
On Tuesday, he said Moscow’s real motivation for the US talks was to ease Western sanctions, rather than pursue peace.
Putin has demanded that Kyiv surrender territory Moscow claims as its own for any deal to be possible.
The diplomatic push comes as Kyiv said that fighting was ongoing in Pokrovsk, the eastern Ukrainian town that Moscow has tried to seize for months – despite Moscow claiming one day earlier that it had seized the town and planted a flag in its centre.
The fall of Pokrovsk would be a symbolic win for Moscow, which calls the city by its Soviet name Krasnoarmeysk. On the eve of the Witkoff meeting, Putin put on military attire as his commanders told him it had been taken.
“We all understand just how important” the capture is, Putin said Monday.
Last week, he repeated that Moscow was intent on capturing the rest of the Donetsk region by force if Kyiv does not give up land that it controls.
Source: CNA
