President Trump’s senior aide on Russia negotiations, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Russia on Friday, the Kremlin said, as American and Russian officials are trying to reignite talks over the war in Ukraine that have appeared stalled in recent weeks.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters that Mr. Witkoff had flown into Russia but refused to say whether the envoy would meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Earlier, the Kremlin said that Mr. Putin would be working away from Moscow on Friday.
If a meeting takes place, it would be Mr. Witkoff’s third with Mr. Putin since Moscow and Washington began working to reset the relationship and find ways to end the war in Ukraine.
The news of Mr. Witkoff’s trip to Russia was first reported by Axios.
Mr. Witkoff recently became the first senior American official to travel to Moscow to meet with Mr. Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. The Biden administration cut off contact with Mr. Putin and accused him of committing crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
Delegated by Mr. Trump as his trusted envoy, Mr. Witkoff has seemed to pursue a different approach. After his first meeting in the Kremlin, Mr. Witkoff said that he had tried to develop “a friendship, a relationship” with Mr. Putin.
