U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin to brief him on recent talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the Ukraine war. The meeting followed negotiations that produced no visible breakthrough in halting the nearly five years of large-scale hostilities, which began on February 24, 2022, although the fighting itself initially started in 2014 in eastern Ukraine.

After the Kremlin meeting, Kushner and Witkoff are scheduled to fly to Ireland for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to reports of the trip. The sequence of talks reflects continuing efforts to bring the parties together, even as the Abu Dhabi round did not yield a visible advance toward a settlement.S2