Russian analyst Misha Pumo has provided details about the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow, saying the Kremlin had been waiting for the talks for two to three months.
Speaking on the Albanian program “Review” with Greta Topjana, Pumo said the U.S. delegation received a notably warm welcome in Moscow, including a roughly two-hour lunch at one of the city’s most luxurious restaurants before meeting Putin.
According to Pumo, the Putin-Kushner-Witkoff meeting lasted approximately three hours and 10 minutes. He said Putin had described the expected negotiations as difficult, despite the cordial atmosphere surrounding the meeting.
“The Kremlin had been dreaming of and waiting for Kushner and Witkoff in Moscow for months — at least two or three months,” Pumo said, noting that Russian officials had repeatedly signaled their interest in holding the meeting.
Pumo also claimed that a representative of the U.S. Senate was part of the broader delegation and suggested that the senator had previously been involved in initiatives to impose sanctions on Russia.
He said the senator’s presence could indicate that Washington was seeking negotiations rather than arriving in Moscow primarily to threaten new sanctions.
The analyst argued that the Kremlin believes Russia is negotiating from a position of strength because of developments on the battlefield and the broader military situation.
At the same time, Pumo said expectations for an immediate breakthrough remained limited because of continued fighting, drone warfare and the wider geopolitical environment.
Kushner backs trilateral talks
Pumo said the American side appeared interested in establishing a framework for direct negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States.
He pointed to Kushner’s reported support for a trilateral meeting as an important element of the discussions, saying Washington appears to favor bringing all three sides together to search for common ground on ending the war.
“Maybe the parties agreed to meet again,” Pumo said, while cautioning that Moscow was unlikely to have presented a peace proposal without conditions attached.
He argued that any Russian proposal would likely include conditions that Kyiv would find difficult to accept, particularly given Ukraine’s previous rejection of similar terms.
Pumo also referenced U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about his earlier efforts to minimize Ukrainian losses during negotiations in Anchorage.
The analyst said the prospect of another meeting could nevertheless represent a limited diplomatic opening despite the continuing military confrontation.
He also highlighted Kushner’s reported support for direct dialogue among the three countries.
“The Americans are also in favor of a trilateral meeting between Russia, Ukraine and the United States,” Pumo quoted Kushner as saying, adding that it was interesting that all sides could communicate with one another in Russian.
Limited prospects for an immediate breakthrough
While the meeting demonstrated that high-level communication between Washington and Moscow remains possible, Pumo suggested that major obstacles remain before any comprehensive peace agreement can be reached.
Russia continues to seek negotiations on terms favorable to Moscow, while Ukraine has rejected key Russian demands and continues to insist on conditions that protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The next stage of diplomacy will therefore depend on whether Washington can persuade Moscow and Kyiv to move from indirect contacts toward substantive trilateral negotiations.
For now, the Moscow meeting appears to have kept diplomatic channels open, but it has not produced evidence of an immediate breakthrough in efforts to end the war.
