Envoy Steve Witkoff has emerged as Washington’s key interlocutor with Putin as Trump pushes for a deal to end the war, and has already held three long meetings with the Kremlin leader.
MOSCOW, April 25 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday at what Trump has called a key moment in diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine.
Witkoff has emerged as Washington’s key interlocutor with Putin as Trump pushes for a deal to end the war, and has already held three long meetings with the Kremlin leader.

The meeting comes on the same day a car bomb killed a senior Russian military officer in the town of Balashikha just east of Moscow, Russian investigators said, in an attack that Russian war bloggers blamed on Ukraine.
The killing followed the assassinations of several high-ranking Russian military figures since the start of the war in Ukraine, which Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

Witkoff and Putin exchange pleasantries

Video published by the Kremlin showed Witkoff and Putin shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries before sitting down on opposite sides of a white oval table.