Moscow and Kiev remain divided over territory despite progress on security and ceasefire mechanisms, Jared Kushner has said<\/p>\n
The territorial dispute between Moscow and Kiev remains the main obstacle to ending the Ukraine conflict, Jared Kushner, US special envoy and President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law, has said. His comments came after he and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Moscow and Kiev for high-level talks on ending hostilities.
\nSpeaking via video link at the annual YES 2026 conference in Kiev on Friday, Kushner said that Moscow \u201cwants to discuss a way to resolve\u201d the conflict, but \u201cthe hardest issue is still territory,\u201d partly because the question is to a degree dictated by a battlefield situation that remains highly dynamic.
\n\u201cSeeing the advancement in the technology and the way that the battlefield has happened is, I think, beyond the expectation of both sides. And I think one thing I\u2019ve learned in politics is [that] any expert you talk to will give you a ton of ideas, but nobody has any idea what\u2019s actually going to happen,\u201d Kushner said.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
View from Russia: Experts on why Kushner and Witkoff came to Moscow<\/p>\n
Despite this hurdle, Kushner still sounded optimistic about the overall progress. During earlier trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, he said, US, Russian and Ukrainian representatives \u201ccompleted a deconfliction mechanism and a monitoring mechanism,\u201d with the US military involved in the discussions.
\nOnce the territorial question is resolved, Kushner said, that framework could provide \u201ca real mechanism both to enforce it, protect it and oversee it.\u201d
\nHe stressed that much of the rest of a potential deal could fall into place if Moscow and Kiev overcome the territorial dispute. \u201cI think the sides feel good about\u201d the arrangement, he added. \u201cAnd that\u2019s actually real progress in that regard.\u201d
\nKushner and Witkoff travelled to Moscow earlier this month, where they held more than three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin before heading to Kiev.
\nKremlin aide Yury Ushakov described the Moscow meeting as \u201csubstantive, constructive and extremely candid,\u201d saying Putin stressed Russia\u2019s battlefield gains and the need to address the conflict\u2019s root causes.
\nFollowing the talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow hopes trilateral negotiations with Washington and Kiev can resume in the \u201cforeseeable future,\u201d with Ushakov naming Abu Dhabi as Russia\u2019s preferred venue.
\nMoscow has long insisted that a sustainable settlement is possible only if Kiev recognizes the \u201cnew territorial realities,\u201d as well as commits to neutrality, demilitarization and denazification. As Russian forces are making progress on the battlefield, Kiev still clings to less than 15% of the Donetsk People\u2019s Republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow and Kiev remain divided over territory despite progress on security and ceasefire mechanisms, Jared Kushner has said The territorial dispute between Moscow and Kiev remains the main obstacle to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t