Donald Trump’s latest effort to end Russia’s war in Ukraine is moving from Moscow to Kyiv after his top envoys spent three hours behind closed doors with Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin called the meeting constructive and signalled room for further talks, but Moscow also repeated several of its central demands.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law and adviser, met Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday as Washington renewed its attempt to broker an end to the war.

Trump had said beforehand that the pair were carrying “a proposal to end the war”, while footage released by the Kremlin showed Putin acknowledging at the start of the meeting that the situation was “not so easy”. The talks lasted around three hours before the American delegation left Moscow for Kyiv, where Witkoff and Kushner are due to meet the Ukrainian leadership on Sunday.

A noticeably warmer tone from Moscow

The most striking feature of the meeting was the tone that followed it. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yury Ushakov, described the discussions as “substantive, very frank and constructive” and said several ideas for a possible peace settlement had been discussed.

Putin himself said direct contacts with the Americans were useful and spoke of a high level of trust in the negotiating relationship, according to BBC.

Witkoff also thanked Putin for the temporary restraint on strikes against Kyiv during the US visit, while the Russian president thanked Trump for his peace efforts.

The discussions were not limited to Ukraine. Ushakov said economic cooperation and potential large-scale Russian-American projects were also discussed, suggesting that both sides are looking beyond the immediate battlefield to the wider relationship between Moscow and Washington.

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But the hardest disagreements remain

The warmer rhetoric does not amount to a breakthrough. Ushakov said Putin again stressed what Moscow calls the “root causes” of the conflict and argued that Russia remained confident it could achieve its military objectives.

Russia still occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, while Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart over territory, security guarantees and Ukraine’s future relationship with NATO.

The BBC noted that despite Russia’s repeated claims of battlefield momentum, its ground forces have generally advanced slowly and at enormous cost.

Al Jazeera also reported a somewhat less pessimistic mood around this round of diplomacy, partly because the Kremlin believes Russia currently holds the military advantage. At the same time, its Moscow correspondent noted that Putin has shown no sign of abandoning his main conditions for a settlement.

A limited pause in strikes – not a ceasefire

The US mission has coincided with a temporary halt in attacks on the two capitals.

The Kremlin said Putin had ordered Russian forces not to strike Kyiv for three days from midnight on Saturday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine, in turn, would refrain from attacks on Moscow through Monday. The arrangement is highly limited and does not amount to a nationwide ceasefire.

The next test will come in Kyiv, where Witkoff and Kushner are due to meet the Ukrainian leadership. Their visit will show whether the ideas discussed in Moscow can survive Ukraine’s own red lines — and whether the warmer tone from the Kremlin marks genuine diplomatic movement or simply another pause before negotiations stall again.

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