Trump envoys Witkoff and Kushner land in Moscow for talks with Putin after Abu Dhabi summit

Steve Witkoff, the special envoy appointed by President Donald Trump, and Jared Kushner, the former White House senior adviser, touched down at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Thursday morning. They were received by Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, ahead of a scheduled meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

The Moscow visit comes immediately after a two‑day trilateral summit in Abu Dhabi involving the United States, Russia and Ukraine, which officials said did not yield a major diplomatic breakthrough. Nonetheless, the Abu Dhabi talks produced a new prisoner‑exchange agreement described as the largest of the war to date, and included discussions on security guarantees for Ukraine and broader European security arrangements.

Following their meeting with Putin, Witkoff and Kushner are expected to travel to Dublin, Ireland, where they will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The itinerary reflects a continued push to engage all parties directly as the conflict approaches its fifth anniversary.

Kushner has publicly emphasized that the prisoner‑exchange deal aims to reunite families and build trust, while also noting that significant differences remain on core issues such as the status of occupied territories, NATO membership for Ukraine and future security guarantees.