US peace negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday, as the Trump administration intensified its latest diplomatic effort to bring an end to Russia’s four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.
The meeting in the Ukrainian capital came shortly after Kushner and Witkoff traveled from Moscow, where they spent three hours in discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday. Those talks, however, did not appear to produce any immediate breakthrough toward ending the conflict.
Earlier US-led attempts to broker peace, backed by President Donald Trump after his campaign pledge to swiftly stop the war, have so far made limited progress. On Friday, Trump indicated that Washington had put forward a new proposal, though he offered no details about what it included.
Putin called Saturday’s discussions “highly useful,” while a White House official told Reuters that further steps in the Ukraine peace process would be made public in the weeks ahead.
Kushner and Witkoff met Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian officials in central Kyiv as the renewed US diplomatic push continued.
Zelensky, who believes Washington will be key to any peace deal, has said a window of opportunity to make peace exists before the US begins focusing on its next presidential elections next summer.
In a post on social media before the envoys’ arrival, Zelensky said he had held a preparatory meeting with his negotiating team and said Ukraine wanted an end to the war.
“Security guarantees are needed. A dignified post-war peace is needed. Our proposals have been drawn up,” he said.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the British, French and German national security advisers were also in Kyiv on Sunday. The source did not specify which meetings they would participate in.
Cautious optimism on the streets of Kyiv
Witkoff and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, have visited Moscow several times in their roles as peace envoys. But Sunday will be their first visit to Kyiv in their capacity as US negotiators.
Their visit has long been sought by Ukraine’s leadership, and on the streets of Kyiv, which has been bombarded heavily in recent weeks, some residents were hopeful.
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“The issue can be solved in the blink of an eye. We want peace. I’ve fought myself, so I know what war is like. We need peace, because there’s no other way,” said military veteran Stepan Yermak.
In previous talks, the sides have remained far apart on a range of key issues, including the future of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. Russia has demanded Ukraine’s withdrawal from an entrenched belt of towns that it still controls there, but Kyiv has refused, reasoning that it can still hold on there for years.
For Ukraine, hard security guarantees from its European allies and the US are crucial to deterring Russia from invading again.
“We need an agreement that will never be broken,” said Svitlana Kurylenko, a 19-year-old cafe worker.
“Just leave Ukraine alone and let people live in peace.”
Temporary halt in strikes
Though the front lines of the ground war remain largely static, both Russian and Ukrainian forces have intensified long-range air strikes in recent weeks.
Russia has pounded the Ukrainian capital day and night with missiles and drones for the past two weeks, including an attack on Friday on the headquarters of the SBU security service.
The Kremlin has said it would pause strikes on Kyiv until Monday, while Zelensky has said Ukraine would also halt strikes on Moscow.
There was no let-up in fighting along the 1,200-km (750-mile) front, however, and Russia bombarded other Ukrainian cities on Saturday.
Ukraine has inflicted damaging hits throughout the summer on Russian refineries, oil terminals and the warehouses of online retailer Wildberries, in an attempt to raise the cost to Moscow of continuing the war.
Ukraine said on Sunday it had struck the Ryazan oil refinery, around 480 km (300 miles) inside Russia, overnight, causing a fire.