U.S. Envoys Meet Putin in Moscow | Portland Maine News

0:00It's September 5th. This is Portland, Maine News today. AI powered stories from your city. I'm Cory with the story. So, US envoy Steve Whitkopf and Jared Kushner recently sat down with President Putin in Moscow. This was part of a new effort from the Trump administration to try and get this whole Ukraine situation resolved. It's been a long road with not much progress, so this was a significant move to get things talking again. The timing was interesting, too. It happened right after a period of heavy, long range attacks from both sides. To make things a bit smoother for the US delegation, there was a temporary pause agreed upon for strikes on each other's capitals. Putin called for 72-hour halt on Kiev, and Ukraine said they'd hold back on Moscow if Russia did the same. Now, this pause came after a pretty intense night of attacks. Ukraine reported Russia launched a ton of drones and missiles, hitting airports near Kiev and causing casualties at an industrial site. President Zelensky even suggested Russia time these attacks to mess with the US team's travel plans.

1:03The big picture here is that there are still massive disagreements. We're talking about territory, security, and Ukraine's potential future with NATO. Russia wants Ukraine to give up land and forget about NATO, but Kiev has made it clear they're not going for that. This visit was the first time US officials had been to Moscow for these peace talks since January, showing how tough it's been to get any traction. The envoys were also expected to head over to Kiev to meet with President Zelensky.