US envoy Steve Witkoff and president Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders in Berlin this weekend, a US official briefed on the matter said.
Mr Witkoff will also meet his counterparts from France, Britain and Germany on Sunday and Monday, the official added.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report the meeting.
The choice to send Mr Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia regarding a US peace proposal, highlights Washington’s growing urgency to bridge remaining gaps with Kyiv over the plan’s terms.
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French president Emmanuel Macron, UK prime minister Keir Starmer and German chancellor Friedrich Merz were also expected to attend, the Journal said.
On Thursday, the White House said Mr Trump would only send an official to the meeting if he felt there was enough progress to be made in peace talks.
Meanwhile, two people were killed overnight in a Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian city of Saratov, regional governor Roman Busargin said on Saturday.
In a statement on Telegram, Mr Busargin said the two people had been killed, along with an unspecified number of injured, in an attack on a residential building in the city.
Saratov, which is located on the Volga river about 625km from the Ukrainian border, has come under repeated attack in recent years by drones targeting its local oil refinery and a major nearby airbase.
Separately, Russia’s defence ministry said it downed 41 drones overnight, 28 of which were over the Saratov region. – Reuters
