‘Very optimistic’ Trump sends Jared Kushner to negotiate with Putin
The President’s son-in-law will join Steve Witkoff to relay Ukraine’s counter-offer to the Russian leader in Moscow on Tuesday, effectively sidelining Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Jared Kushner will join Steve Witkoff at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday (local time) after the White House said it was “very optimistic” about a deal being reached to end the war in Ukraine.
Donald Trump’s son-in-law and the White House special envoy have become the lead American negotiators in talks with Russia after almost four years of war, and have effectively sidelined US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Mr Rubio is seen as more sympathetic to Ukraine and helped to redraft the 28-point peace plan originally negotiated by Mr Witkoff, Mr Kushner and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, in secret talks in Miami at the end of October.
However, Mr Rubio will not be travelling to Moscow, leaving Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner, whose extensive business interests have often run parallel to their diplomacy efforts, to relay the Ukrainian counter-offer at a crucial stage in the war.
On Monday night, Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said “I think the administration feels very optimistic”, after talks between the US officials and a Ukrainian delegation in Florida on Sunday.
The US President and his team “have been working so hard on this effort and they all really want to see this war come to an end”, Ms Leavitt added. “Just yesterday … they had very good talks with the Ukrainians in Florida and now of course Special Envoy Witkoff is on his way to Russia.”
The original 28-point plan negotiated by Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner last month was seen as overly generous to the Kremlin as it required Ukraine to surrender land and limit its armed forces to 600,000 troops, among other concessions.
Mr Kushner, 44, the husband of Ivanka Trump, appears to be playing an increasingly active role in US diplomacy, despite no longer having any formal role in the White House, as he did during the President’s first administration.
His business ties with the Gulf, including a $US2bn ($3.06bn) investment by the Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund into his private equity firm months after he left government in 2021, helped smooth the path towards the Gaza deal.
He has also had dealings with Russian officials in the past, including attending a meeting in New York with Sergei Gorkov, head of the Russian state development bank, after the 2016 US election.
Mr Kushner said at the time that he did not discuss with Mr Gorkov “my companies, business transactions, real estate projects, loans, banking arrangements or any private business of any kind”.
In the lead-up to the Moscow summit, Putin has shown little appetite for restraint, insisting that the fighting will only end once Ukraine withdraws from all the territory claimed by Russia.
In 2022, Putin declared the entirety of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk as part of Russia, in addition to Crimea, the peninsula annexed in 2014.
Despite some advances by Russian troops around the city of Pokrovsk in recent weeks, the Kremlin continues to struggle to push Ukraine out of all the areas it claims.
Speaking in Paris on Monday after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the renegotiated 19-point peace deal was an improvement on the original 28-point plan.
“The plan that we have is better,” he said. “The question of territory and land is probably the most difficult.”
While in Paris, Mr Zelensky also held a call with Mr Witkoff. The Ukrainian President was supported by Mr Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on the call.
Mr Witkoff held a further meeting on Monday with lead Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov. At the US-Ukraine talks in Florida over the weekend, attended by Mr Witkoff, Mr Kushner and Mr Rubio, Mr Umerov said there had been “significant progress” but the peace plan still required “further refinement”.
He posted on X: “Grateful to the American side for their constructive and partnership approach. We agreed to maintain constant and close contact in continuing this process.”
The Times
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