By Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, are heading abroad to attempt to forge a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. president told reporters on Friday.
During comments in the Oval Office, Trump suggested the U.S. had a fresh concrete proposal aimed at ending the war, which is now in its fifth year. He did not, however, elaborate on what that proposal would be, nor did he say if Witkoff and Kushner would be traveling to Ukraine, Russia or both nations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday said the two men would fly to Ukraine on Sunday after visiting Moscow.
“We have an idea for peace,” Trump said.
“I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators. They’ve done a great job, and we sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done. And there may be a good chance that we’ll do it.”
The duo had been planning to travel to Moscow over the weekend followed by a visit to Kyiv, two sources previously told Reuters. However, the itinerary has been in flux in recent days, and the Kyiv section of the journey was still not completely certain, one of the sources said on Friday.
The Trump administration’s attempts to settle the war in Ukraine have largely come to nothing, and negotiations stalled out in recent months.
In late August, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow in part to press counterparts there to consider a settlement, Reuters and several other media outlets reported.
Most Western intelligence officials doubt Russian President Vladimir Putin is interested in a short-term deal, while Ukrainian intelligence believes he is in fact likely to escalate, rather than de-escalate the war in the near term.
A Russian drone hit the headquarters of Ukraine’s SBU security service in Kyiv on Friday in one of the most high-profile targets struck during the war.
Witkoff, who is effectively the lead U.S. negotiator with respect to the war in Ukraine, has traveled to Moscow numerous times but has not yet visited Ukraine.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery;Editing by David Ljunggren)