US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow late Thursday, Russian state media reported.
Witkoff said on Wednesday that he, along with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, would travel to Moscow at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s request for talks about ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
As per Russian state media outlet Ria Novosti, Witkoff’s plane landed at Vnukovo International Airport at approximately 10:36 p.m. Kyiv time.
Russian state media also reported that Witkoff is set to discuss US security guarantees for Ukraine with Putin. Shortly afterwards, the Kremlin announced that talks between Putin and Witkoff had begun.
“Vladimir Putin’s meeting with US President’s Special Envoy Steven Witkoff is underway at the Kremlin,” the Kremlin said in a Telegram post.
Earlier on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Trump on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. After their meeting, Zelensky said that US security guarantees for Ukraine had been finalized, describing them as “done.”
However, Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territories remain a sticking point. Zelensky told reporters in Davos that “it’s all about the eastern part of our country. It’s all about the land.”
Witkoff is expected to present Putin with the latest draft of a US-backed peace plan, details of which first leaked to the press in November 2025.
The terms of the original 28-point plan were unilaterally favorable to Russia’s war goals, and it later emerged that Kremlin officials had helped draft it, with Witkoff advising them on how to present it to Trump.
According to Russian state media, Yuri Ushakov (Putin’s most senior foreign-policy adviser) is present at the Putin-Witkoff meeting, along with Kushner and Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev. Ushakov and Dmitriev are the officials Witkoff reportedly advised on how to gain the US president’s support late last year.
The details of Trump’s peace plan have not been published, but it has undergone significant revision since then, with input from Ukrainian negotiators as well as their European and NATO allies.