Their first stop was Moscow. Special envoys Steve Witkoff — who openly admitted being “scared” of traveling to Russia and Ukraine in the midst of an increasingly hot war — and Jared Kushner were met by their old friend Kirill Dmitriev and ushered into the room where they were welcomed by Vladimir Putin. Also in attendance was former Russian Ambassador to the United States Yuri Ushakov.

The purpose of the visit, to be followed by a meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was ostensibly to restart negotiations toward a peaceful settlement of the nearly five-year-old war. But I say “ostensibly” for a reason.

Because upon being greeted by Putin, Witkoff immediately set the tone of the meeting — not with a stern follow-up to the warnings delivered by CIA Director John Ratcliffe on August 25th — but with this obsequious bit of boot-licking:

“President Putin, thank you so much for having us. Me, Jared, Kirill, Yuri — we were talking about, when we retire, we’ll have all these incredible stories and memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all.” [McGill Media, September 6, 2026.]

According to Witkoff, the American team “heard new ideas” from Putin. But he offered no details, saying only that it was hoped a new round of US-mediated Ukraine-Russia talks would be announced “in short order.” [Shahana Yasmin, Holly Bancroft and Suha Kidwai, Independent, September 7, 2026, 03:00 BST.]

Yuri Ushakov said that the U.S. side had “outlined a number of ideas regarding possible avenues for a settlement” — again, without any specifics. [Dmitry Antonov and Gleb Bryanski, Reuters, September 5, 2026.]

And Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said in an interview with the Vesti media outlet:

“The very fact that the meeting is taking place means that an atmosphere of trust does exist, at least through this channel of communication, and is strengthening. Usually, extended exchanges of such welcoming remarks appear when there are messages that the head of state considers necessary to send.” [Kanyshai Butun, AA.com.tr, September 6, 2026.]

All of which sounds like a lot of “hail fellow well met,” when we should instead have been hearing that Putin had been told his time for stalling was up and that he could either end the war on reasonable terms or pay the consequences.

But that might have adversely affected Donald Trump’s underlying purpose, which is to advance trade relations with his friend Vlad to their mutual benefit. So the diplomatic dance that has been the hallmark of all of the Witkoff-Kushner-Putin meetings continues.

Interestingly, Peskov also referred back to the Trump-Putin meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, last year, saying that “certain understandings” had been reached at that time, and stressing that:

“It is difficult to say at this point how applicable they are from both the Ukrainian and US perspective. But at least some elements of those understandings will always remain on the agenda.” [Id.]

But what do we know of the substance of those “certain understandings?” Nothing. In fact, both sides said at the time that no agreements had been reached, though numerous subjects had been discussed.

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Then the Washington contingent headed to Kyiv, apparently flying to Poland and proceeding from there by train — an interesting choice, but understandable in the face of all of those Russian drones and missiles flying around in Ukrainian airspace.

Again, we don’t have details of their meeting with President Zelensky, though both Zelensky and Witkoff described the talks as “substantial.” Zelensky later told reporters that they had discussed security and economic guarantees for Kyiv, supplies of air-defense missiles, and a support package for Ukraine for the coming winter, among other things. [RFE/RL, September 6, 2026.]

He also said that there was talk of renewing trilateral negotiations among Kyiv, Moscow and Washington . . . for all the good they have done in the past, with Putin refusing to budge on his view of the “root causes” of the war.

*. *. *

As I said, we haven’t been given detailed information as yet, and there may indeed be something substantive in the works. But from what little we have heard — and that little bit sounding eerily like an echo of what we’ve heard after every one of these high-level “negotiations” — where we are today seems very much like where we’ve been for the last two years, since Trump said he would end this war “on day one” if he were to be re-elected.

And where that is, is anyone’s guess.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/7/26