Kremlin Responds As Trump-Linked Private Jet Lands in Moscow: Reports

The Kremlin responded on Tuesday after a private jet reportedly linked to President Donald Trump landed in Moscow.

Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti said Tuesday that a jet allegedly linked to Trump’s U.S. Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Tuesday.

Newsweek reached out to the White House and Russia’s Foreign Ministry for comment via email on Tuesday.

Why It Matters

Reports of the jet’s arrival in Russia’s capital added fuel to speculation that Trump could soon attempt to broker peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in the ongoing war.

Trump has pledged to bring an end to the nearly three-year war in Ukraine. He has said repeatedly that he would swiftly bring an end to the war in Ukraine by speaking with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

What To Know

Citing Flightradar24 data, RIA Novosti said a Gulfstream G650ER private jet departed from Washington and was at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport at 10:17 a.m. local time.

When questioned about reports Witkoff had landed in the country, Peskov told state-run news agency Interfax: “No, we have no information. No contact [with Steve Witkoff] is planned.”

No discussions “regarding a Ukraine settlement” are planned at the moment, Peskov added.

Trump aide Witkoff owns a Gulfstream G650ER jet, although it is unclear whether it is his jet that landed in Moscow on Tuesday.

Observers of the war in Ukraine speculated that it was Witkoff’s plane in Russia.

“A Gulfstream G650ER Business Jet which departed yesterday from Washington D.C. and is claimed to be owned by Steve Witkoff, Special Envoy to the Middle East and Close-Aide to U.S. President Trump, has entered Russian Airspace and is approaching Moscow,” said X (formerly Twitter) account OSINTdefender.

The reports sparked a backlash among pro-Ukraine accounts on X, formerly Twitter, with one Putin critic, Jay in Kyiv, writing: “Trump’s emmisary Witkoff landing in Moscow now. Steve is about to be shown his extensive FSB file, the hotel cam footage, bank records, online dating profiles, incriminating private messenger convos. Then negotiations begin.”

The U.S. president allegedly used one of Witkoff’s private jets as a decoy to travel to an event during his 2024 campaign, fearing an attempt on his life, Axios reported on February 9. That plane was known as “Ghost Flight”, though it wasn’t immediately clear if it was the same aircraft as one spotted landing in Moscow on Tuesday.

Separately, Lynne Tracy, the U.S. ambassador in Moscow, reportedly held talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Tuesday, the Kremlin said. The pair discussed the operations of Russian diplomatic institutions abroad, RIA Novosti reported alongside a video of Tracy’s arrival to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.