Loading...
For three years after Russia sent its army into Ukraine, American and Russian officials hardly spoke. In 2025 President Trump reopened contact at the top: phone calls with Vladimir Putin, a meeting in Alaska, and two personal envoys, a property developer and the president's son-in-law, who travel between Moscow, Kyiv and the Gulf. The channel has carried peace proposals, prisoner exchanges and talk of business. It has not produced a ceasefire, and America's allies are not part of it.
The wider relationship and each side's full account: The United States and Russia.
On 5 September American envoys arrived in Moscow with a Ukraine peace proposal and met Putin. No breakthrough followed. On 7 September the envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner left Kyiv after talks. On 23 September Trump invited Putin to the G20 summit in Miami, and the United States formally repeated the invitation on 24 September. On 26 September the German and Russian foreign ministers met in New York.
Whether to talk at all. One view holds that speaking to Moscow while it bombs Ukrainian cities rewards it. The other holds that wars end by negotiation and that refusing contact only hands the conversation to others.
Who is in the room. Washington and Moscow both prefer to deal with each other. Ukraine, whose territory is discussed, and the Europeans, who would pay for any settlement, are briefed afterwards.
What the channel is for. Moscow wants a wider normalisation: embassies, flights, business, arms control. Washington has tied most of that to progress on Ukraine.
The previous administration's refusal to speak to Moscow brought no peace and some risk of nuclear war. A president who can call both leaders is the only mediator there is. Professional diplomacy failed for a decade, so he uses people he trusts. Allies are informed and their interests are represented. If Russia will not settle, the channel is also where it hears what follows.
Russia never closed the door. It was Washington that expelled diplomats, seized Russian property and tried to isolate a great power. The return of dialogue shows that attempt failed. Russia will talk about the causes of the conflict, not only a pause that lets Kyiv rearm. It notes that each round of talks has been followed by new sanctions or new weapons for Ukraine, and asks whether the American president can deliver his own side.
Washington's leaves out that the first American plan drew on a Russian paper, according to American press reports the administration disputed; that the envoys have business dealings in the Gulf, where many of the talks are held; and that Putin has repeatedly followed calls with Trump with some of the heaviest strikes of the war.
Moscow's leaves out that it has rejected every ceasefire put to it; that it refuses to meet Ukraine's president while saying the West blocks negotiation; and that it attacked Kyiv on the eve of a NATO summit days after a long presidential call.
Kyiv's and the Europeans' leaves out that they chose to have no contact with Moscow and so left the field to Washington; and that they have offered no plan of their own that Russia might accept or that they could enforce without America.
Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.
Per-week distribution of events. Click a bar to see that week's top events.
Click a week bar to select. Light blue = active week.
+5 more this week
RussiaTwo businessmen without diplomatic staff negotiate the security of a continent with a government that has broken every agreement it signed with Ukraine. Proposals appear that were drafted with Russian officials, and Ukraine is given days to answer. Moscow uses the talks to buy time and split the alliance while its army advances.
