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Closed-door talks between Trump's representatives and Putin took place in Moscow

Closed-door talks between Trump's representatives and Putin took place in Moscow

Boris Bodnar Journalist

23 January 2026, 09:20

Closed-door talks between Trump's representatives and Putin took place in Moscow — Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff during a meeting in April in St. Petersburg Photo by Gavriil Grigorov Sputnik Kremlin AP Photo DW dpa picture alliance

Negotiations between the US presidential delegation and Vladimir Putin lasted more than three and a half hours in the Kremlin, during which they discussed the war against Ukraine, the "peace council" initiative and frozen Russian assets.

On the night of 23 January 2026, negotiations between US President Donald Trump's delegation and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded in Moscow. The meeting in the Kremlin began at approximately 11 p.m. Kyiv time and lasted about 3.5 hours, according to the Russian service of the BBC and DW.

On the American side, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, US President's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and senior White House adviser Josh Greenbaum participated in the talks. Russia, apart from Putin, was represented by his aide Yuri Ushakov and special representative for investment and economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev.

According to the Kremlin, the talks took place behind closed doors, and their details were not officially disclosed. At the same time, after the meeting, Ushakov confirmed that the parties discussed Trump's initiative to create a so-called "peace council," a number of regional issues, and the situation around Greenland. The issue of Russian assets frozen in the United States was raised separately.

According to Ushakov, Moscow has declared its readiness to allocate $1 billion from these assets to the budget of the future "peace council". The rest of the funds, according to the Kremlin, are proposed to be used to restore territories affected by hostilities after the conclusion of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. He added that discussions on this topic will continue within the bilateral economic group led by Vitkoff and Dmitriev.

Vitkoff's previous meeting with Putin took place in early December 2025 and lasted about five hours, but at that time the parties did not achieve a significant breakthrough. Further consultations on a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine are expected to continue on 23 January in Abu Dhabi, where, for the first time in a long time, direct contacts between representatives of Kyiv and Moscow are possible with the mediation of the United States.

Trump, Putin, Vitkoff, Kushner, Grunbaum, Ushakov, Dmitriev

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