US envoys arrive in Moscow for latest round of Ukrainian peace talks with Putin

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special envoy, met Kushner and Witkoff ​off their plane amid wet snow and accompanied them to central Moscow ahead of their talks with Putin.

This week's Abu Dhabi talks were the first ​direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the US to ​try to end the 4-1/2-year-old war in nine months and, although Russian and ‌Ukrainian ⁠negotiators reported some progress, the US side said differences remained on major issues, including territory.

Read:Russian diplomats and military officials to join talks with US and Ukraine, Kremlin says. Despite public optimism from US President Trump, there has been no sign of major compromises.

Kyiv has strongly rejected ​Putin's demands to ​surrender the whole ⁠of the eastern region of Donbas in return for peace, and with talks deadlocked on land, ​US mediators have tried to steer discussions towards postwar ​security ⁠guarantees and reconstruction.

A senior Russian diplomat said on Wednesday that Moscow could conclude non-aggression pacts with NATO member states as part of a ⁠new ​security architecture for Europe, though many European ​politicians say they oppose any discussion of Europe's overall security before real progress on ​Ukraine - including a ceasefire - is made.