The White House said it is “very optimistic” as Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner prepare to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday in an effort to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Tuesday the meeting was expected to begin at about 5 p.m. local time, or about 9 a.m. ET, and that Special Envoy Witkoff and Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, were expected to speak with Russia’s president.
The high-stakes sit-down follows a series of meetings between top U.S. and Ukrainian officials, during which the parties sought to revise the original peace-plan proposal presented by the Trump administration to Ukraine last month.
Witkoff and other top U.S. officials, including Kushner and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, met on Sunday in Florida with a Ukrainian delegation to attempt to find a deal that Ukraine and Russia might both accept to end the war.
“I think the administration feels very optimistic,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday, following the Florida meeting. “They had very good talks with the Ukrainians in Florida. And now, of course, Special Envoy Witkoff is on his way to Russia.”
The meeting represents the latest step in a diplomatic effort that has accelerated under President Donald Trump, who has made direct negotiations a central feature of his foreign-policy approach.
Since returning to office, Trump has pushed for rapid progress on a settlement, dispatching advisers and encouraging back-channel discussions aimed at bringing both sides closer to a negotiated agreement. His administration has portrayed the upcoming Moscow talks as a key moment in a broader attempt to de-escalate the conflict.
The war traces back to 2014, when Russian forces entered Ukraine following the ouster of the country’s pro-Russian president and annexed the Crimean Peninsula. The conflict widened that same year as Russia-backed separatists seized territory in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, forming the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Fighting persisted in the region for years, marked by recurring offensives and failed cease-fire attempts.
The conflict escalated dramatically on February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, triggering Europe’s largest ground war since World War II. Russian troops initially pressed toward Kyiv before being pushed back by Ukrainian forces, shifting the war’s focus to the Donbas and southern fronts. Since then, intense battles, widespread destruction and mass displacement have defined the war’s trajectory.
As Witkoff and Kushner prepare to meet with Putin, the talks represent one of the most direct U.S.-linked diplomatic engagements since the invasion began. While tempering expectations with caution, the White House maintains that continued negotiations offer a potential path toward an eventual settlement.
