Trump negotiators Witkoff, Kushner arrive in Moscow as US pushes for end to Russia-Ukraine war

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner touching down in Moscow before Kyiv tells you something about how this administration operates. No months of pre-summit choreography, no army of interchangeable envoys cycling through European capitals to produce a joint statement nobody reads. Two guys who actually have the president's ear, going straight to the source. Whatever you think of either man's résumé, that's the whole theory of this White House: fewer layers between the decision-maker and the deal.

It's fair to ask what a "good chance for a deal" actually means after three years of a war that has chewed through a generation of young men on both sides and reshaped European security for a decade. Trump has said optimistic things before that didn't pan out on the timeline he promised. But the alternative being offered by the last administration was an open-ended commitment with no theory of how it ends, just steady checks and vague talk about supporting Ukraine "as long as it takes." That's not a strategy, it's a subscription.

What matters now is what's actually on the table when Witkoff and Kushner sit down with the Russians, and then what changes when they land in Kyiv. Territory, security guarantees, sanctions relief, all of it is going to involve trade-offs that will make purists on both sides furious. That's what real negotiation looks like when the other side isn't obligated to agree with you.

We'd rather see American power used to actually stop the killing than spent maintaining a war of attrition indefinitely because ending it is politically awkward. If this trip produces a framework that holds, even an imperfect one, that's a win worth having. If it doesn't, at least someone finally tried the direct route instead of another year of statements from Brussels.