Russia claims Witkoff and Kushner to head to Kremlin for meeting with Putin before Kyiv visit

A Russian government-operated news outlet reported that President Donald Trump’s special envoys will hold a meeting at the Kremlin before their planned arrival in Ukraine this weekend.Tass claimed in a Friday article that special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff “expect to arrive in Moscow and then Kyiv on September 5-6,” citing an unnamed source.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked to comment on the report, declined to do so but indicated that talks were being held to iron out a visit. Jared Kushner, left, and Steve Witkoff, special envoy for peace missions, listen as Vice President JD Vance speaks during a news conference after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran on Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Islamabad. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool) “I wouldn’t announce anything, but when these contacts take place, we will inform you,” he told reporters on Friday.If Tass’s reporting is accurate, it would indicate that Witkoff and Kushner will arrive in Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday. They would then travel from Moscow to Kyiv, Ukraine, to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.It will be Witkoff and Kushner’s first trip to Kyiv since Trump returned to office last year. They previously visited Moscow and spoke with Putin and other officials in January.The timing of the meeting at the Kremlin would give the team a chance to reassess the position of the Russian government and determine whether the needle has moved on negotiations that have for years been functionally pointless due to contrasting visions.“I think what they’re trying to get out of this is some sort of deal that they can strike with Putin that would make him slightly softer on the Ukraine side — something that could instigate negotiations,” Jan Techau, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told the Washington Examiner. “And move the Russians to adopt a starting position on negotiations that could be acceptable to the Ukrainians — something that they can then carry to Kyiv and say, ‘See, the Russians have moved now, you guys have to move as well.'”Techau is not optimistic about Kushner and Witkoff getting what they want from the Kremlin, cautioning that “these visits have never really produced very much of an outcome, at least not in the Ukraine context.”Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, greets U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff, center left, Jared Kushner, second right, and Josh Gruenbaum, the head of the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration, at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, in Moscow. (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) “They could never change Putin’s opinion on the war. Putin is a hard-liner,” Techau continued. “His demands are quite clear. He’s not moving — he basically wants negotiations under terms that mean that Ukraine gives up before negotiations even start. That’s not acceptable for the Ukrainians. And so they can travel there as much as they want [but] as long as Putin is not changing his fundamental stance on the war, which he’s unlikely to do, none of this will make too much of a difference.”CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with his Russian counterpart in Moscow less than two weeks ago. The nature of these meetings and what was conveyed remains largely unknown.RUSSIA TO CLOSE GERMAN CULTURAL CENTERS AND END ‘THEIR CULTURAL PRESENCE IN RUSSIA’Reports have variously suggested that he was in the Russian capital to press for peace with Ukraine, caution them against aiding the Islamic regime in Iran, and warn against a hypothetical invasion of the Baltic states.Officials in both the United States and Russia initially denied the reports or pleaded ignorance. Trump later dismissed questions about the nature of the visit, calling it a “semi-routine” meeting between counterparts.