Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff arrive at Kremlin for Putin talks

MOSCOW, Nov.12 (Reuters) – US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived at the Kremlin on Thursday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a new push for a peace deal in Ukraine despite what they have called a lack of trust between Moscow and Kyiv.The negotiations are the 10th time Witkoff has met Putin in person during a conflict that has lasted longer than the Soviet Union’s fight against Nazi Germany in World War II, and follow two days of US-led trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi.After the Abu Dhabi talks, the first direct US-mediated negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in nine months, the sides said they had agreed on a major exchange of prisoners of war that is likely to happen in the coming weeks, but announced no breakthrough in wider negotiations.As he entered a Moscow hotel before the Kremlin talks, Witkoff was asked by a reporter whether progress made in the talks so far meant peace was closer.“I hope so,” he replied.Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reported some progress in Abu Dhabi, but the US side said differences remained on major issues, including territory.Witkoff and Kushner are expected to fly to Dublin later on Thursday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who said on Wednesday he hoped a result in the talks could be achieved by the end of this year, but that much depended on how the United States approached Moscow.President Donald Trump, who once said he could end the now four-and-a-half-year-old conflict in 24 hours, has instructed Witkoff and Kushner, his son-in-law, to make a new push for peace, which he hopes will burnish his self-styled credentials as a peacemaker.He said last week that the conflict was close to being settled in a “big beautiful agreement,” though he has frequently predicted breakthroughs that have not materialized.Kyiv has rejected a demand by Putin, who sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, to surrender the whole of the eastern Donbas region in return for peace ...