Kushner and Witkov are in Moscow to meet with Putin... and Zelensky talks about new restrictions on “StarShield”

Talks are taking place in Moscow between Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, US envoy Steve Witkoff, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, following the end of negotiations hosted by Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the war in Ukraine without achieving a breakthrough. The American envoys were received at Vnukovo Airport on Thursday by Kirill Dmitriev, the special envoy of the Russian President and CEO of the Russian Sovereign Fund.

This visit comes after two days of talks that brought together negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States in the UAE capital - the first of their kind since February - where Kiev said that the talks had made progress on some issues, but did not result in a clear solution. These developments coincide with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warning of a recurrence of the disturbances witnessed by the “Starshield” system - a military-use version of Elon Musk’s “Starlink” service, which is extremely important for Ukrainian military operations - in recent days.

On Thursday, Zelensky explained in a post on the “X” platform, previously Twitter, that the service faced “major disruptions,” which hindered Kiev’s ability to shoot down Russian drones. Zelensky said that Kiev "is trying to determine all the circumstances in coordination with the American side."

In statements he made after Wednesday's talks, which lasted less than two hours, Kushner explained that the goal of the Moscow meeting was to finalize plans to provide more humanitarian aid and release prisoners, in addition to seeking to "involve the Europeans in this path, so that it becomes a multilateral framework." While Ukraine has long demanded that Europe be at the main negotiating table, Moscow has so far resisted such efforts.

Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized the participation of European officials in the Abu Dhabi talks, describing their participation as not a "promising approach." For his part, in response to a question about whether there were any contacts between the Russian side and representatives of the European Union in Abu Dhabi, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday: “There were no such planned contacts, and none of them happened.”

Kushner - who plays a prominent diplomatic role despite not holding any official position in the Trump administration - is also expected to go, accompanied by Witkov, to Dublin to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and discuss the ideas that were raised during the Abu Dhabi talks. Kiev is being attacked by drones, and despite the intense diplomatic activity, these efforts aimed at achieving peace have not given Ukraine any respite from the daily Russian attacks.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Moscow launched a ballistic missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight and into Thursday morning. In Kiev, local authorities reported that at least one person was killed and others were injured as a result of a Russian drone attack on Thursday morning.

“These are not random errors, but systematic speed restrictions,” Zelensky said on Thursday. “For us, this essentially means great difficulty in intercepting Russian drones powered by jet engines.”

He added: "We are trying to determine all the circumstances in coordination with the American side." Also last October, Ukraine reported that restrictions had been imposed on the speed of Starshield terminals, in light of the deterioration of relations between Kiev and Washington.

Trump denied his approval of that decision, while Musk indicated that the Trump administration was behind imposing those restrictions.