US envoys arrive in Moscow for talks on peace in Ukraine

US special representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner landed in Moscow on Saturday for talks on how to end the war in Ukraine, where they were met by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

A motorcade, carrying Witkoff, Kushner and Dmitriev, left Moscow’s governmental airport and headed towards the city, a Reuters witness said.

Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency that President Vladimir Putin would meet Witkoff and Kushner in the Kremlin later on Saturday.

US President Donald Trump suggested on Friday the US had a fresh concrete proposal aimed at ending the war, which is now in its fifth year.

He did not, however, elaborate on what that proposal would be.

Russian envoy Dmitriev, who told Reuters in June that he had remained in contact with the US negotiators during a pause in their visits to Russia, took part in all their previous meetings with Putin alongside Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov .

He also played a role in negotiating US sanction waivers for Russian oil this year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday the two men would fly to Ukraine on Sunday after visiting Moscow.

In an X post on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Russia hit two Ukrainian airports ahead of US envoys’ visit to Kyiv.

Peskov said in a statement posted on the Kremlin’s channel in Max messenger that Putin had ordered the military not to strike Kyiv for three days, starting at midnight on Saturday, in connection with Witkoff and Kushner’s visit to the Ukrainian capital.

A VAST GULF IN POSITIONS The Russian Defence Ministry reported 53 Ukrainian drones in Russian airspace on Saturday, significantly fewer than the average seen in recent months.

Moscow is celebrating City Day on Saturday, with hundreds of thousands of people taking part in open-air festivities across the city.

A vast gulf remains between Russia and Ukraine on how to end the 4-1/2-year-old war, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two.

A source close to the Kremlin, speaking before reports emerged of a possible trip by President Trump’s envoys, said Putin was still intent on capturing more territory.