U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday for their first visit to the Ukrainian capital in the renewed peace effort, one day after more than three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin ended without an announced breakthrough.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, moving the Trump administration’s renewed peace initiative directly from the Kremlin to the Ukrainian capital after an inconclusive three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The visit marks Witkoff and Kushner’s first trip to Kyiv as part of efforts to negotiate an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Their arrival follows Saturday’s lengthy closed-door discussions with Putin in Moscow, where the two American envoys sought to revive negotiations that have lost momentum as Washington devoted much of its attention over the past six months to the Iran war.
No breakthrough was announced after the Kremlin meeting.
Putin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov nevertheless described the discussions as constructive, frank and useful, saying the Americans and Russians exchanged ideas about a possible settlement.
Moscow also gave the delegation what Ushakov described as a “comprehensive assessment” of Russia’s position on the battlefield.
The talks extended beyond the war itself.
“Economic issues and potentially large, mutually beneficial joint projects for Russia and America were discussed in considerable detail,” Ushakov said.
The discussion of possible U.S.-Russian economic cooperation indicated that Moscow and Washington also considered what relations between the two countries might look like if progress toward ending the war can eventually be achieved.
For now, however, no agreement on the central disputes separating Russia and Ukraine has emerged.
Witkoff and Kushner previously traveled to Moscow in January and met Putin at the Kremlin. Their latest trip comes as the administration attempts to reestablish momentum behind negotiations after months in which diplomatic attention shifted toward the Middle East.
The envoys are now bringing the results of the Moscow discussions to Zelenskyy and Ukrainian officials.
Their arrival in Kyiv also comes amid a sharp escalation in aerial warfare between Russia and Ukraine.
With neither side making rapid progress along the approximately 1,250-kilometer, or 775-mile, front line, drones and missiles have assumed an increasingly prominent role in the conflict.
Russia has begun making greater use of fast-flying, jet-powered drones as it intensifies attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Ukraine has simultaneously expanded long-range strikes inside Russia.
Putin and Zelenskyy agreed to temporarily refrain from attacking each other’s capitals while the U.S. diplomatic mission was underway.
The limited arrangement covers Kyiv and Moscow rather than the entire battlefield, and military operations continued elsewhere overnight into Sunday.
Russian attacks across several Ukrainian regions killed one person and injured at least 10 others, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
In the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, Russian drone attacks killed a 74-year-old man and wounded three other people.
Another drone struck an apartment building in the western Khmelnytskyi region, injuring seven people.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 108 drones and six missiles overnight.
Ukrainian defenses intercepted 82 of the drones, according to the air force.
Russia also reported Ukrainian attacks on its territory.
In the border region of Belgorod, local authorities said a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle, killing a man and seriously wounding a woman.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted 258 Ukrainian drones overnight across 14 Russian regions, Russian-occupied Crimea and areas over the Black and Azov seas.
The continuing attacks underscore the narrow scope of the agreement surrounding the diplomatic mission.
The temporary restraint on Moscow and Kyiv did not amount to a nationwide ceasefire and did not stop either military from conducting operations elsewhere.
Instead, it created a limited period in which the two capitals would be excluded from attacks while American negotiators moved between Russia and Ukraine.
The pause followed a sustained period of increasingly heavy aerial attacks.
Russia has intensified its bombardment of Ukrainian targets, including attacks extending beyond traditional military positions and into urban and industrial areas.
The repeated air-raid warnings have increasingly become part of everyday life in Kyiv as Ukraine struggles with shortages of air-defense systems.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has sought to impose costs on Russia through strikes against military facilities and economic infrastructure far behind the front line.
Those attacks have targeted infrastructure intended to support Moscow’s war effort and economy.
The renewed diplomatic mission is therefore unfolding as military pressure increases rather than decreases.
Saturday’s Kremlin meeting offered no indication that either Russia or Ukraine had materially changed its fundamental position.
The more than three-hour discussion ended without a ceasefire agreement, peace framework or announced territorial compromise.
Ushakov’s characterization of the meeting as constructive suggested that dialogue remains open, but he provided no specific agreements resulting from the talks.
The trip to Kyiv now gives Zelenskyy and Ukrainian officials their first opportunity during this diplomatic round to hear directly from Witkoff and Kushner about the proposals and positions discussed with Putin.
It also allows the U.S. delegation to obtain Ukraine’s response before Washington determines what further negotiating steps may be possible.
The administration’s immediate objective is to determine whether the positions of Moscow and Kyiv can be brought close enough together for more substantive negotiations.
The intensified air war illustrates the difficulty of that task.
Even while Putin and Zelenskyy temporarily excluded each other’s capitals from attack, Russian and Ukrainian forces continued launching large numbers of drones across other parts of the conflict zone.
That leaves Witkoff and Kushner moving between two governments that remain engaged in heavy military operations while simultaneously considering whether negotiations can produce a path toward ending the war.
The Moscow stage produced extensive discussions but no public breakthrough.
The diplomatic focus now shifts to Kyiv, where the American envoys will hear Ukraine’s response to what they learned at the Kremlin and attempt to determine whether the renewed U.S. peace effort can advance beyond another exchange of positions.
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