U.S. President Donald Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss the evolving plan to bring peace to Ukraine. A number of key issues, such as the division of territory and the future architecture of Ukrainian security, remain unresolved despite the significant progress of the past two weeks.
The meeting comes as Putin claims a significant victory in Ukraine, saying his forces had taken full control of Pokrovsk in the east, a logistics center for supplying the Ukrainian forces—a battlefield development that, if confirmed, would strengthen Russia's hand in the negotiations.
What To Know
- Witkoff and Putin are due to meet at around 5 p.m. local time in Moscow (10 a.m. ET). The Kremlin said both men may give statements after the meeting. They will discuss the revised version of Trump's peace plan following U.S.-Ukraine negotiations on an earlier draft proposal that Kyiv viewed as too strongly weighted in Russia's favor.
- Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, who helped to negotiate the Gaza peace deal, is also in Moscow with Witkoff for the meeting. Kushner had also participated in recent talks with Ukrainian officials on ending the war.
- Putin claimed late Monday that the key Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk—which Russia calls Krasnoarmeysk—had finally fallen to Russian forces after an intense battle. The eastern city is a strategically important logistics hub. But a Ukrainian commander had earlier said that Pokrovsk was holding despite a Russian escalation, and doubted it would fall.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in France to meet with President Emmanuel Macron as he holds talks across Europe to shore up support from his allies on the continent and coordinate a united position on the emerging peace deal. There are concerns in Europe that Trump will strong-arm Kyiv into capitulation to Moscow to end the war.
- Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund and one of Putin's envoys leading on the U.S. talks over Ukraine, said in a post on X ahead of the Witkoff meeting: "Important day for peace: the team that delivered President Trump’s Gaza peace deal will be in Moscow to advance Trump’s peace agenda in Ukraine."
Stay with Newsweek for live updates on the push to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
...Dec 02, 2025 at 04:31 AM EST
Ukraine defense minister meets with US ambassador to NATO
...Ukrainian defense minister Denys Shmyhal said he had a "substantive meeting" with U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker in Brussels, where the pair talked about "ways to strengthen our defense partnership".
U.S. President Donald Trump has ruled out Ukraine joining the Western defensive alliance. Russia has made Ukrainian neutrality a core demand for peace, calling Kyiv's ambitions to join NATO a "root cause" of the current conflict.
But NATO continues to offer vital support to Ukrainian forces for their defense against Russia's invasion, including through the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative, which sees the U.S. sell Kyiv military equipment and weapons it needs paid for by other NATO allies.
European NATO allies have also said that the decision on Ukraine's joining is not Russia's to make.
"We highly value all the assistance the United States has provided to Ukraine," Shmyhal said after his meeting with Whitaker.
"We discussed ways to strengthen our defense partnership. I also noted the effectiveness of the PURL initiative for procuring American weapons and outlined the priority needs of our Armed Forces.
"We thank the United States — especially @POTUS Donald Trump — for the extraordinary support for Ukraine and for the leadership in bringing a just and lasting peace closer."
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