Trump’s Kremlin Dream Team Huddles Four Hours to Figure Out How To End Ukraine War, Still Unsure
KEY POINTS
- •Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Josh Gruenbaum met Putin in the Kremlin on Thursday night.
- •The meeting happened after a Trump-Zelensky conversation in Davos and focused on resolving the territorial control in eastern Ukraine.
- •Witkoff and Kushner traveled to Abu Dhabi for trilateral talks with Ukrainian officials including Rustem Umerov and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
In a Kremlin episode that felt like a reality TV reunion nobody asked for, Donald Trump's envoys—Steve Witkoff (who just sounds like a fintech villain), Jared Kushner (aka son-in-law with senior adviser powers), and Josh Gruenbaum—racked up four long hours Thursday night chatting with Vladimir Putin about ending the Ukraine war. This meeting followed a Twitter-worthy Davos hangout where Trump conferred with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Despite the 'substantive, constructive and very frank' chat according to Putin’s advisor Yuri Ushakov, the deal hinges on playing hot potato with the Donbas territory, which Putin exerts like a toddler clutching his favorite toy. Then the gang jetted to Abu Dhabi for trilateral talks with Ukraine's military and diplomatic dream team including Rustem Umerov and Andrii Hnatov, while Russia sent their spy sauce-lord Admiral Igor Kostyukov. Even Greenland and Trump's mysterious 'Board of Peace' made cameo mentions—because why not fold an island and a boardroom into a war peace negotiation? Donbas remains the villainous third wheel nobody wants but everyone must talk about.
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Four hours in Moscow talking peace with Putin, Trump’s envoys proved you can chat a lot without actually changing Donbas’ address. Peace plan confirmed: discussion happens, results pending eternal sequel.
Russia’s Donbas demand sounds less like diplomacy and more like insisting you keep the last slice of pizza forever.
Streaming live from Kremlin: Trump’s peace talks are the new limited series called 'Will They, Won’t They (Cede Territory)?'
Source: Axios | Published: 1/23/2026 | Author: Barak Ravid
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