On the 80th anniversary of the day, near the end of World War II, when American and Soviet troops famously met at the Elbe River, the Special Envoy of U.S. President Trump Steve Witkoff met today in the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The three-hour meeting included Kirill Dmitriev, with whom Witkoff had met earlier in the day. Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, was appointed two months ago as Russia’s Presidential Envoy on Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation. Born in Kiev and educated in the U.S., he has had extensive discussions with Witkoff.
Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, who also took part in the meeting, described it as constructive and very useful. “This conversation allowed Russia and the United States to further bring their positions closer together, not only on Ukraine but also on a number of other international issues.… As for the Ukrainian crisis itself, the discussion focused in particular on the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine.”
Russia and Ukraine last held direct negotiations in Istanbul in March and April 2022, which were highly successful—until disrupted by the U.K.’s Boris Johnson and the U.S.’s Joe Biden.
Ushakov made an explicit reference to the 1945 Elbe River link-up in his remarks afterwards: “This meeting is well known to symbolize the military alliance of our two countries in the fight against fascism.” So, too, Dmitriev posted on Telegram in Russian, and on his X account in English: “A meeting in the Kremlin today was held on the exact 80th anniversary of Soviet & U.S. troops meeting at the Elbe River—a historic moment that symbolized the joint victory over Nazism and a shared hope for postwar peace.”
