Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in Moscow with US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The dialogue lasted about 2.5 hours, and afterward the Kremlin said it was ready to begin demining Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region immediately for a humanitarian mission, infohub.kz reports.
According to RIA Novosti, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the meeting that the US negotiators strongly backed the Russian leader's proposal to extend the practice of the successfully carried out humanitarian operation in Oleshky to another city beyond the line of contact — namely Kostiantynivka.
"It has been agreed to begin concrete contacts with US representatives regarding this new humanitarian action. We are ready to start demining immediately," TASS quoted Ushakov as saying.
US officials described the talks at Vnukovo airport shortly before leaving Russia. Witkoff reported progress had been made and new talks scheduled. According to him, representatives of European countries may join the next meeting on the Ukrainian conflict.
"Overall, I think we had very substantive and detailed discussions on all the topics, which I hope will serve as a basis for the next multilateral negotiations," Kushner added.
The US envoys are expected to travel to Ireland, where they will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and brief him on the Moscow meeting.
Recall that in late October Melania Trump said she had secured an agreement between Russia and Ukraine on a temporary cessation of hostilities in Oleshky to conduct a humanitarian operation. BBC Russian reported that the Ukrainian and Russian delegations left the city together with evacuated residents.