Jared Kushner says Putin is ‘very committed’ to peace talks, and the room reportedly burst out laughing

Jared Kushner told the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv, speaking by phone, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “very committed” to negotiations over the war in Ukraine. “President Zelensky is very committed to this, from what we’ve seen. From what we heard, President Putin is very committed to this as well,” Kushner said. Local media, as cited by The Daily Beast, reported that the audience laughed after he described Putin in those terms.

Kushner said Putin had already “laid out his line of what he wants to achieve.” He continued, “If Ukraine wanted to withdraw to that line, then obviously we have the rest of the deal set up and put together. Ukraine right now does not want to do that.” He said mediators needed “a creative solution that doesn’t violate their desires and that helps them achieve their objective.”

Kushner said Ukraine and Russia are both feeling “a lot of pain” and that both sides have “a lot of desire” to stop the fighting. “At least for now, they [the Russians] are saying the right thing, which is they want to discuss a way to resolve this in a way,” he said. He added that the work now is to “find the right formula that hopefully works for everyone to advance it forward.”

Kushner told the Kyiv forum the remaining obstacle is Ukraine’s refusal to accept Putin’s territorial line

Kushner portrayed Ukraine as the party blocking the completion of the package. He said an agreement was otherwise in place if Kyiv accepted the land Putin has demanded. He did not call Russia the main aggressor; instead, he described both capitals as wanting the war to end.

President Donald Trump assigned Kushner and Steve Witkoff to handle the Russia-Ukraine talks after taking office for a second term.  Trump had said the war would end within one day of his inauguration. Reports have described little movement since that assignment.

Kushner and Witkoff traveled to Moscow and Kyiv earlier this month in an effort to restart talks. Moscow’s proposals have each required Ukraine to give up territory. Officials in Kyiv have said they will not accept that condition.

After meeting the U.S. envoys in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters he believed “the war will continue” into the winter. Kushner’s conference remarks came as Russian drones struck a border crossing between Poland and Ukraine on Sunday morning. That crossing is often used by foreign officials entering Ukraine.

Intelligence agencies have warned that Russia appears to be preparing a direct attack on a NATO country. This comes as Putin has warned Russians to be prepared for anything, refusing to rule out strikes on NATO targets.  Kushner recently met with Putin as part of the same mediation work.