US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner landed in Moscow on Saturday with a proposal to end the years-long conflict in Ukraine, although Russia has signaled little prospect of a breakthrough.
Expectations for the visit are extremely low, according to people close to the Kremlin. Previous trips by Witkoff and Kushner failed to achieve progress and there's no reason to believe they're bringing acceptable proposals now, the people said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to stop the war only on his own terms, and Moscow's demands are getting tougher because it believes it has the military advantage over Ukraine, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Friday, US President Donald Trump said his envoys were “bringing with them a proposal to end the war,” without elaborating.
Kushner and Witkoff plan to travel to Ukraine on Sunday in what would be their first visit there since the war began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Friday on X. Kyiv's goal is to make the visit “as constructive and substantive as possible,” he said. Ukraine won't conduct airstrikes for the period needed for the US officials' visit and expects Russia to reciprocate, Zelenskyy said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's General Staff on Saturday said Russian forces fired Iskander-M and KN-23 ballistic missiles along with 167 attack drones on Ukraine overnight. Russia's Defense Ministry said the strike targets included steel mills in the Dnipropetrovsk region and fuel depots near the Hostomel airfield, outside Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said Russian strikes on airports overnight – in Kyiv and nearby Boryspil — were “demonstrative.”
“Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the US side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine and land at Kyiv Airport or Boryspil Airport,” he wrote in post on X. “Russian-Iranian ‘shaheds' in response to American diplomacy.”
“Ukraine is interested in bringing peace closer,” Zelenskyy added.
Still, people familiar with the thinking in Kyiv said Ukraine is also pessimistic about making meaningful progress around the Witkoff-Kushner visit. The US envoys are expected to push previous ideas like making Donbas an economic free zone, which Russia has already rejected, the people said.
Ukraine kept up its own air campaign, with the Russian ministry reporting 53 Ukrainian drones downed across nine regions including Moscow. Ukrainian drone activity was somewhat lower,than in recent days, when Kyiv's forces launched hundreds of drones targeting Russian sites.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
