Trump names Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner as special peace envoys for Moscow

Trump has named Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner as special peace envoys, with meetings already held with Russian envoys in Moscow and a visit to Kyiv still pending. Kyiv Post editor-in-chief Bohdan Nahaylo describes them as businessmen close to Trump negotiating a deal favorable to Washington, not as diplomats.

US President **Donald Trump** has appointed **Steve Witkoff**, a real estate magnate and friend of his, and his son-in-law **Jared Kushner** as special peace envoys. Both have already met several times with Russian envoys, including in Moscow, and are expected to finally visit Kyiv. The question hanging in the air is whether these contacts will help bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table.

## Envoys who are not diplomats

Bohdan Nahaylo, editor-in-chief of the **Kyiv Post**, put it plainly to TVP World: "I wouldn't even call these diplomatic efforts." In his view, they are "business efforts carried out by entrepreneurs close to Trump." The distinction is no small matter: those negotiating do not represent the US diplomatic corps, but rather the president's personal circle.

Nahaylo added that these envoys have been negotiating with Moscow "to get the best possible deal for the Trump administration." And he focused on the price: seizing as much Ukrainian mineral wealth as possible in exchange for helping Ukraine.

## Mineral wealth as a bargaining chip

Interest in Ukrainian resources is not a minor detail of the story. According to Nahaylo's description, the country's mineral wealth enters the equation as payment for US support. That makes the negotiation look more like a transaction than a mediation between two warring parties.

For Ukraine, the problem is one of position. The country needs to keep the United States engaged, and that limits its room to reject whatever framework is put in front of it. The envoys' visit, if it happens, comes at a delicate moment for Kyiv.

## An awkward visit before the anniversary

Nahaylo considered it would be "very embarrassing" for the envoys to show up in Kyiv, especially before the **35th anniversary** of Ukraine's independence. His reading is that most Ukrainians find it "quite da repelús" that these people are not treated as diplomats.

The discomfort is not about the need to negotiate, but about the manner. An envoy without a diplomatic portfolio, with economic interests on the table and previous meetings in Moscow, is an interlocutor hard to sell to a population that has been at war for years.

## What Ukraine has at stake

The dispatch of Witkoff and Kushner condenses the Trump administration's logic toward the conflict: direct contacts, a business profile and an explicit economic quid pro quo. Whether that formula manages to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table remains to be seen. For now, what exists are meetings with Moscow and a visit to Kyiv that is awaited and that, according to the cited criticism, causes discomfort in Ukraine.