Putin’s refusal to budge one iota from his maximalist demands raises the question of what the duo achieved in their many previous visits to Moscow.
Putin’s refusal to budge one iota from his maximalist demands raises the question of what the duo achieved in their many previous visits to Moscow.
B y the time Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner set foot in Kyiv this past Sunday, the two men had logged more jet miles to and from Moscow than most old Russian hands log in a career.
Until this trip, neither man had visited the country whose survival is the subject of all their Moscow shuttle diplomacy.
For more than two years, the American envoys have negotiated the fate of Ukraine from the vantage point of its enemy — an enemy that invaded the country without provocation and, four and a half years later, is still trying to destroy it. Witkoff and Kushner have sat across the table from Vladimir Putin, absorbed his grievances, nodded along to his historical revisionism, and returned home to relay Moscow’s terms to the president. Meanwhile, Kyiv, the actual government of the actual country under actual bombardment, got no such treatment. A few video calls, some mostly unproductive meetings in Washington, and the occasional reassuring quote for the wire services.
So, yes: Welcome to Ukraine, gentlemen. What took you so long?
The Trump administration’s defenders will say the delay was tactical, that Witkoff and Kushner needed Moscow’s confidence to keep talks alive, and that a Kyiv visit risked signaling the kind of alignment that might spook Putin from the peace table. Perhaps there is a sliver of truth in this. But Putin’s refusal to budge one iota from his maximalist demands raises the question of what Witkoff and Kushner have achieved in their many visits.
Ukrainian Independence Day, on August 24, saw many of Europe’s leaders, including those of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, as well as the new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, make the trip to Kyiv to stand with Ukraine, while Washington’s own peace envoys were still delaying. In their absence, our friend Mike Pence did an excellent job as the de facto U.S. representative. His speech to more than 2,000 Ukrainian and European leaders was a clarion call for the defense of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law in Ukraine and around the world. It brought the audience to their feet and reminded me why Pence would be a great president.
Then the Kushner–Witkoff visit was delayed again by a fresh wave of missile and drone strikes on Kyiv. It is a bitter irony that the missiles meant to demonstrate Russian leverage instead showed exactly why American negotiators needed to be standing in Kyiv rather than reading about it in a briefing memo.
I spoke with President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Ukrainian Independence Day celebrations. He made a strong case that the Americans negotiating his country’s borders and security guarantees would benefit from seeing what a Shahed drone actually does to an apartment building rather than hearing about it secondhand from Kremlin officials who insist that the strikes are precision operations against military targets.
Finally, the White House gave its approval for an American visit. Better late than never is true. Kudos to the White House for finally allowing something that should have happened long ago.
There is real value in Witkoff and Kushner sitting across a table from members of Zelensky’s government and seeing schools and hospitals that have been destroyed by Russian missiles. They heard and saw the urgent Ukrainian need for interceptors, real security guarantees, and clarity on territorial boundaries. It was a highly beneficial first visit, but its true value will be seen if and when American proposals start reflecting Ukrainian security needs as seriously as they have reflected Russian talking points.
Hopefully, Trump’s Board of Peace concept amounts to more than a branding exercise. Hopefully, the fate of the more than 20,000 kidnapped Ukrainian children will not be ignored. While organizations like Save Ukraine are doing their best to locate and repatriate these kids from all over Russia, only pressure from the U.S. and other allies will enable them all to be reunited with their families.
Kushner and Witkoff’s Kyiv visit was a good start, but real progress will require some diplomatic head-knocking to help Putin understand that he has been lied to by his cronies who are too busy enriching themselves to tell him the truth. As I wrote for NR last month, Putin has already lost this war. He just needs to be brought up to speed. That will not be easy, and it will require some tough truths from the U.S. negotiating team.
Going forward, a strong, evenhanded negotiating strategy is needed to bring this totally unnecessary and extraordinarily destructive war to a long-overdue end. Let us hope that Witkoff and Kushner are up to the task. They might want to give Mike Pence a call.
Gregory Slayton and Sergei Ivashenko are co-authors of the recent book Portraits of Ukraine: A Nation at War. They are giving all profits from book sales to pro-Ukrainian charities.