As Ukraine War Escalates, Witkoff and Kushner Are Focused on Iran
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are pivotal players at a moment when the posts of U.S. ambassador to Moscow and Kyiv are both vacant.
Steve Witkoff, a White House special envoy, has met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia seven times since President Trump returned to office. Credit... Eric Lee for The New York Times
Russia’s president has said he understands why the Trump administration is “distracted” by Iran. Ukraine’s president has lamented that his country is not the top U.S. priority, telling reporters, “unfortunately, we are in this queue of these wars.”
In the meantime, Russia and Ukraine have escalated their attacks on each other’s territory to what experts describe as one of the most dangerous moments since Russia’s invasion began more than four years ago.
At the center of the disconnect between the increasing violence in Eastern Europe and the Trump administration’s seeming lack of focus on it are the president’s two main negotiators for both Iran and Ukraine: the special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law. They traveled to Qatar this week for another round of Iran talks , even as Ukraine was launching more drones toward Moscow and as Russia was readying its latest barrage targeting Kyiv, where at least 21 people were reported killed Thursday in overnight attacks.
The last time Russian and Ukrainian officials are known to have met face to face was in Switzerland in February, with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner sitting between them. In the months since, the Iran war consumed the Trump officials’ attention, even as the fighting escalated between Russia and Ukraine — a conflict that Mr. Trump had promised to solve within 24 hours.
