A business jet believed to be carrying US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner has landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Saturday, citing aviation sources.
Russian news agency RIA Novosti separately reported that a convoy of vehicles bearing diplomatic licence plates had assembled at the airport’s government terminal shortly before the aircraft’s arrival, a detail widely seen as a further indication that the American delegation had touched down.
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Witkoff and Kushner are expected to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow before travelling on to Kyiv on Sunday to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to earlier reporting by Axios that cited Ukrainian and US officials. Trump has said the two envoys are carrying proposals aimed at ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, which they intend to present to both capitals during the trip.
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The visit marks the latest attempt by Washington to restart negotiations that have remained largely stalled for months. The last round of trilateral talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States took place in Geneva on 17 and 18 February this year. A planned follow-up meeting in Abu Dhabi in early March was postponed after the outbreak of a separate conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran.
According to earlier Axios reporting, cited separately by Russian and Ukrainian outlets, CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced visit to Moscow in late August, during which he discussed the possibility of arranging a trilateral meeting between the American, Russian and Ukrainian presidents. Saturday’s arrival of Witkoff and Kushner is being viewed by observers as a possible next step in that effort.
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According to reporting citing an unnamed source, the American aircraft, a Boeing C-32A used for special government flights, departed from Miami International Airport and made a stopover in Helsinki before continuing on to Russia and entering Russian airspace ahead of its landing in Moscow.
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Zelensky had earlier proposed a mutual air ceasefire to run for the duration of the American delegation’s visit to the region. Russia did not agree to the proposed halt, and Ukrainian forces said they were continuing full defensive operations overnight, reporting further Russian strikes using Iskander-M and KN-23 ballistic missiles alongside more than 160 attack drones in the hours before the envoys’ arrival.
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Neither the Kremlin nor the White House had publicly detailed the agenda for the Moscow leg of the visit at the time of the aircraft’s arrival, and the composition of the wider negotiating teams on both sides had not been disclosed. Attention will next turn to whether the Moscow talks with Putin yield any tangible progress ahead of the envoys’ onward trip to Kyiv, where they are due to meet Zelensky on Sunday as part of the renewed diplomatic push to bring the war closer to a negotiated end.
