Steve Witkoff (center), special envoy of US President Donald Trump, and Jared Kushner (second from left), Trump's son-in-law, meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) in Kyiv on Sunday (local time). [UPI]
Steve Witkoff (center), special envoy of US President Donald Trump, and Jared Kushner (second from left), Trump's son-in-law, meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) in Kyiv on Sunday (local time). [UPI]

Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's special envoy, announced Monday (local time) that "substantial progress was made, including scheduling additional trilateral talks," following visits to Russia and Ukraine on Saturday and Sunday.

Witkoff said on his X account that day that the US negotiating team had visited both Moscow and Kyiv "at the direction of President Trump to facilitate further dialogue aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war," adding that the back-to-back meetings had yielded meaningful progress.

Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday alongside Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. The following day he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. While Witkoff had visited Moscow eight times previously, the trip to Ukraine was his first.

Witkoff's signal that US-mediated trilateral talks involving Russia and Ukraine could resume has drawn attention to whether negotiations to end the more-than-four-year war may now accelerate. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that day it was "still too early to discuss specific venues and timing" for talks, but did not rule out the possibility of resuming trilateral negotiations.

The trilateral talks began earlier this year and continued through February, but yielded no results as the two sides remained far apart on the question of postwar territorial division. The talks ground to a halt after the United States entered the war against Iran beginning Feb. 28.

Ahead of his visits to Russia and Ukraine, Witkoff said the two countries had agreed to a three-day halt to attacks. He also said that beyond his meetings with the two leaders, "national security advisers from the United Kingdom, Germany and France joined the US delegation in Kyiv to coordinate on the path forward."

He added that "President Trump is working to stop the killing and achieve a lasting peace."


kate01@heraldcorp.com