US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky in Kyiv on the weekend to discuss how to end the war between the two countries. Afterwards, Witkoff called on both sides to make compromises. Zelensky said that security and economic guarantees for Ukraine had been discussed. Moscow described the talks as “extremely frank” and “constructive”. Washington has embarassed itself againJOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The visit to Moscow on Saturday was a diplomatic faux pas, rants journalist Edward Lucas (Lithuania) in Delfi: “We should have been shocked by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s repugnant fawning over Putin. And also by the fact that Witkoff and his equally unimpressive sidekick, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, travelled in a convoy of Russian government vehicles and relied on an interpreter from the Kremlin during the Moscow meeting. Unfortunately, repugnant rhetoric and actions from Washington seem to have become the norm. ... Much like the US president’s daily tirades on social media, unpleasant episodes only shock us until they are overshadowed by the next alarming piece of news.” Time is on Putin’s side Journalist and former deputy minister for infrastructure Mustafa Nayyem (Ukraine) analyses the situation on Facebook: “Donald Trump has made his ability to bring wars to a swift end an integral part of his political image. Furthermore, the political calendar is piling on the pressure: the mid-term elections are just around the corner and the presidential election campaign begins about a year from now. ... The more urgently Washington needs results, the more sense it makes for Moscow to play for time, continue the war and wait for the next offer. This is why I would focus less on the number of visits by Witkoff and instead ask what has changed in Putin’s calculations after each of these visits. Right now the answer seems to be pretty clear: nothing.”