Putin Meets US Envoy Witkoff in Moscow, Rejects Foreign Troops in Ukraine

The direct engagement between Putin and Witkoff, alongside Kushner, signals that back-channel diplomacy is active even as core positions remain far apart. Putin's explicit framing of foreign troops as legitimate targets is a hardening statement that narrows the space for any security-guarantee arrangement involving Western forces. The immediate audience is European capitals weighing post-conflict deployment options, since such a presence now carries stated risk. Whether Witkoff's hoped-for multilateral round with European representatives materializes is the open question, and the gap between that ambition and Putin's red line is the key thing to watch.