Witkoff and Kushner to see Putin in Moscow, then Zelensky in Dublin

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the envoys US President Donald Trump has sent on Russia-Ukraine diplomacy, are due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reported. According to the same report, the two men will go on to see Ukrainian President Zelensky later that week, in Dublin.

In a follow-up post published later the same day, Ravid wrote that the purpose of the Moscow visit is to repeat a request already made of the Kremlin, and that the envoys also hope Putin will agree to let European representatives take part in the next round of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. The Jerusalem Post, citing the report, said the discussions with Putin would cover a security deal and an end to the war. The foreign desk of an Israeli Hebrew-language news outlet also relayed the Axios report to its readers in a Telegram post.

Who the two envoys are

Witkoff holds the title of US Special Envoy, and Kushner is President Trump's son-in-law. Both act as emissaries of the president on this file, which is why their travel and meetings are followed as a signal of where the White House is putting its attention.

This would not be their first encounter with the Russian leader. A photograph published by The Jerusalem Post alongside its report shows an earlier meeting at the Kremlin between Putin, Witkoff and Kushner. According to the caption, Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin's foreign policy adviser, and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian presidential envoy, also attended. The caption does not give a date for that session, and the reports do not describe what was agreed there.

The question of a European seat at the table

The most specific new detail in the reporting is the envoys' push for European participation in the next round of talks. As Ravid describes it, this is something the Americans are asking Putin to permit. The reports do not say which European governments or institutions would send representatives, whether Europeans were present at earlier rounds, or when and where the next round is expected to take place.

For readers following the war from abroad, the issue matters because the format of negotiations shapes who has a direct voice in any settlement. The reporting presents the envoys as advocates for widening that format, but it does not include any statement from a European government on the matter.

Moscow first, then Dublin

The planned sequence, Putin on Thursday and Zelensky afterwards, puts both sides of the conflict on the envoys' schedule within the same week. Dublin is the capital of Ireland. None of the reports explain why the Irish capital was chosen for the meeting with the Ukrainian president, or whether it coincides with any other event there.

The Hebrew-language version of the story mentioned only the meeting with Putin in Moscow and did not refer to Dublin or to Zelensky. The Axios posts are the source for the second leg of the trip.

Why Israeli outlets carried it

Ravid's reporting for Axios was picked up by Israeli media on the same evening, both in Hebrew and in English through The Jerusalem Post. The story itself concerns the war between Russia and Ukraine rather than Israel directly.

What the reports do not say

The reporting leaves several gaps. Ravid's later post refers to the envoys restating "the request" but the material does not spell out what that request is. No response from the Kremlin, from Ukraine's government or from European capitals has been reported, and there is no on-the-record statement from the White House confirming the trip. The terms of the security deal mentioned by The Jerusalem Post are not described, and no date has been reported for the next round of peace talks.