Witkoff and Kushner arrived in Kyiv amid new US efforts to end the war

U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Ukraine on September 6. Their visit is part of Washington’s diplomatic efforts to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.

This was reported by reports Kyiv Independent, citing sources familiar with the situation.

The visit by Witkoff and Kushner took place the day after their talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The meeting lasted more than three hours, and both sides described it as “substantive.”

On the eve of the American envoys’ arrival, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Kyiv was ready to continue working toward ending the war.

“We are interested in bringing the war to an end. Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A decent character of the postwar peace is needed. Our proposals are ready,” Zelenskyy said on the X television channel after meeting with senior Ukrainian officials.

For Witkoff and Kushner, this is their first visit to Ukraine’s capital. It has been postponed several times. The trip comes amid a new U.S. attempt to mediate an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion, which has now lasted more than four and a half years.

Peace talks effectively reached a deadlock at the beginning of this year. Moscow continues to reject a ceasefire along the current front line. Russia also demands that Kyiv cede Donbas — a partially occupied and strategically important region in eastern Ukraine — and abandon its aspirations to join NATO.

Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, told the New York Times that U.S.-mediated peace talks could resume by the end of September, shortly after elections to Russia’s State Duma and a few weeks before the U.S. midterm elections.

At the same time, the Kremlin has shown no willingness to drop its territorial claims. Kyiv, for its part, warns that Russian forces are preparing to intensify strikes on Ukrainian cities and the energy system this winter.

The talks between Witkoff, Kushner, and Putin in Moscow appear to have produced no breakthrough. The Russian president said he expects Russia to achieve its “goals” and insists on eliminating what Moscow calls the root causes of the war.

A White House spokesperson told journalists that the sides “discussed substantive plans for further steps that will be announced in the coming weeks,” but provided no additional details.

For the duration of the American envoys’ stay in the region, Russia and Ukraine agreed to refrain from airstrikes on each other’s capitals. Kremlin press secretary Dmitriy Peskov said on September 5 that Putin had ordered Russian forces not to strike Kyiv for three days starting at “midnight,” according to Russian state media.

Ukraine had proposed a broader three-day ceasefire that would cover not only strikes on the two capitals but also fighting along the front line. During the meeting with the American envoys, Putin stated that Russia had not agreed to this broader proposal.

According to Zelenskyy, despite the agreement, Russian forces carried out a series of attacks across Ukraine on the night of September 5, including strikes on Kyiv.

On the night of September 6, a new wave of attacks followed, including strikes on Kyiv region. At the same time, no strikes directly on Kyiv were reported.