US Envoys Head for Moscow Saturday, Kyiv Sunday — First Talks Inside Ukraine
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will see Mr Putin in Moscow on Saturday and President Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday — their first negotiations inside Ukraine. Mr Zelensky offered to guarantee the safety of Russian airspace during the visit and urged Moscow to reciprocate and halt attacks. The Kremlin’s spokesman would “not announce anything”; Mr Putin said Thursday “there are chances” of a deal — “Moscow and Kyiv must agree between themselves” — while conceding nothing on territory.
The itinerary is the concession: American envoys negotiating in Kyiv rather than summoning Ukrainians to neutral ground restores a symmetry Moscow has spent a year erasing, and Mr Zelensky’s airspace-guarantee offer — a belligerent promising safe skies over the country he is striking — is diplomacy conducted in the war’s own currency. The sequencing risk runs the other way: Saturday in Moscow first means Sunday’s Kyiv session opens with whatever Mr Putin chose to concede or demand, and Friday’s drone in the SBU chief’s window shows how Russia prepares a negotiating table. Both capitals are managing the same audience of one; “Kushner and Witkoff are always welcome guests,” Mr Putin purred this week. Watch whether the weekend’s bombardment pauses — the first measurable test of whether these talks are process or theatre.