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U.S. envoys Witkoff and Kushner land for talks in Kyiv after meeting Putin in Moscow
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6, 2026.
President Vladimir Putin, right, greets U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, prior to talks at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026.
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+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Witkoff and Kushner call Kyiv talks ‘substantive’ after Moscow Putin meeting U.S.
− envoys Witkoff and Kushner land for talks in Kyiv after meeting Putin in Moscow U.S.
+ envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held meetings in Kyiv with Ukraine's President Zelenskyy on Sunday, a day after lengthy conversations with Russian President Putin in Moscow.
− envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are set to arrive in Kyiv on Sunday in their first visit to the Ukrainian capital as part of a renewed push for peace in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
− By
The Associated Press
U.S.
+ By
Willem Marx
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and U.S.
− President Donald Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff, center, and Jared Kushner, right, arrive in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept.
+ President Donald Trump's envoy Jared Kushner talk in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept.
− Francisco Seco/AP hide caption
KYIV, Ukraine — U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday in their first official visit to Ukraine as part of a renewed push for peace after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
+ Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP hide caption
Trump administration envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have described held meetings in Kyiv on Sunday with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as "substantive," with Witkoff saying he was "very encouraged."
The talks took place just a day after lengthy conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow that produced no announced breakthrough about a potential end to the war.
− Their trip follows a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday, seeking to revive peace talks during escalating aerial attacks by both sides.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Kyiv is ready for a "constructive" discussion with U.S.
+ Jared Kushner, speaking at a press conference in the Ukrainian capital directly after the discussions with Zelenskyy, did not divulge many details but said he and his fellow envoy had "learned a lot from the trip."
There will be further talks later Sunday alongside European security leaders, said Zelenskyy, who insisted before meeting the U.S.
− representatives.
"We are interested in bringing the end of the war closer.
+ envoys that any agreement would need to include security guarantees and a "dignified post-war peace."
President Trump had suggested the two men were bringing new proposals to the talks, but Zelenskyy has shown little desire for the territorial concessions Moscow says are non-negotiable.
− Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A just and sustainable postwar peace is needed. Our proposals are prepared," he said in a post on Telegram.
+ That impasse has stalled prior rounds of U.S.-brokered diplomacy.
− Washington's push to end the fighting has lost momentum, with the United States focused for the past six months on the Iran war.
+ Witkoff and Kushner's Moscow meetings, held behind closed doors at the Kremlin, lasted more than three hours on Saturday.
− The last known visit to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, was in January when they also held talks with Putin at the Kremlin.
+ Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov later characterized the talks to reporters as constructive and useful, though he did not offer specifics about what, if anything, had been agreed.
+ Ushakov said the conversation ranged beyond the battlefield, touching on potential joint economic ventures between Russia and the United States.
− Mikhail Metzel/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/ AP hide caption
Saturday's meeting in Moscow lasted more than three hours behind closed doors and ended without announcements of any breakthroughs.
+ Mikhail Metzel/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/ AP hide caption
The trip was the first to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner since January, and it followed a long period of time in which the pair's attention — and much of the administration's diplomatic bandwidth — was consumed by the separate conflict involving Iran.
That lull in American attention has coincided with a Kremlin that looks increasingly emboldened, even as U.S.
− Putin's foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, described them afterward as constructive, frank, and useful but didn't discuss specific outcomes.
+ officials worry the war in Ukraine is on the verge of escalating further.
− While Moscow offered its "comprehensive assessment" of the battlefield situation in Ukraine, Ushakov said, the talks were not purely focused on the war in Ukraine.
"Economic issues and potentially large, mutually beneficial joint projects for Russia and America were discussed in considerable detail," he said.
The air war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified as troops have struggled to make progress along the 1,250-kilometer (775-mile) front line.
+ Attacks on Black Sea shipping routes by both sides have also stoked fears of renewed global grain shortages.
− Russia has recently been using fast-flying, jet-powered drones, and the recurring wail of air-raid sirens has become part of daily life in Kyiv.
+ And then added to that is growing concern among NATO members over suspected Russian sabotage and cyberattacks in Europe, including a failed drone incursion at a German airport that officials there have linked to Moscow.
− Putin and Zelenskyy had agreed to pause strikes on each other's capitals while the talks take place.
+ A recent visit to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, for talks with his Russian intelligence counterparts, suggested Ukraine may have recently made a broader diplomatic recalculation.
− Still, the two traded fire overnight into Sunday, officials said.
+ Little about Ratcliffe's meeting has been made public.
− Russian attacks across multiple Ukrainian regions killed one person and injured at least 10 others overnight into Sunday, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said.
+ Publicly, Putin has continued to insist Russian forces are making battlefield gains and will achieve Moscow's war aims, leaving unclear how much room the Kremlin sees for compromise.
− In Zaporizhzhia, drone strikes killed a 74-year-old man and wounded three people, while a drone damaged an apartment building, injuring seven people, in the Khmelnytskyi region.
+ With front lines that have remained largely frozen, both country's militaries have leaned harder on air power to punish the other side. Ukrainian drones have frequently targeted Russian energy and logistics sites, contributing to fuel shortages inside Russia.
− Ukraine's air force said Sunday that it intercepted 82 drones out of the 108 launched by Russia overnight, along with six missiles.
+ Moscow has said it will seriously damage Ukraine's power grid again this winter — a threat made more credible given Kyiv's dwindling stock of U.S.-supplied Patriot interceptors.
− In Russia, a man was killed and a woman seriously wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle, local authorities in the Belgorod border region said.
+ Against such a backdrop, President Zelenskyy had vowed in a video address to keep Russian airspace clear so that the American delegation could travel safely in and out of Moscow. He said he hoped the visit would prove substantive.
− The Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday that its air defenses overnight shot down 258 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions, occupied Crimea and the waters of the Black and Azov seas.
+ Putin, in turn, ordered a 72-hour pause on airstrikes against Kyiv to cover the second leg of the envoys' trip, a reciprocal gesture that meant both capitals could enjoy a brief respite from the bombardments that have battered infrastructure — some of it civilian — all summer.
− In Kyiv on Sunday, dozens gathered for a nationwide 9 a.m. moment of silence honoring Ukraine's fallen soldiers, a daily ritual held in cities across the country.
+ That reprieve didn't extend elsewhere though: Ukraine's State Emergency Service said Russian strikes overnight killed one person and injured at least ten others across several regions, including a fatal drone strike in Zaporizhzhia and a building hit in Khmelnytskyi.
− Among them was Nataliia Lipei, 67, whose son Viktor was killed in December 2022. Despite a health condition, she has traveled from city to city to take part, and she said she hopes the talks in Moscow and Kyiv will finally bring an end to the war.
+ Ukraine's air force said it shot down 82 of 108 Russian drones launched overnight, plus six missiles.
− "I hope these steps and these meetings will definitely produce results, because there has been so much bloodshed and so many deaths here that we have to stop all of this," she told The Associated Press.
+ Russia reported one death from a Ukrainian drone strike in the Belgorod border region, and said Ukrainian drones had also hit oil facilities near Rostov-on-Don.
− Not everyone shared her hope for the talks. Oleksandr Pastukhov, 27, a video editor who joined the commemoration, was skeptical the envoys' visit would change anything.
+ NPR's Joanna Kakissis in Kyiv and Charles Maynes in Moscow contributed to this report.
− "We've already seen delegations like this come here before," he said.
+ NPR does not offer or accept money for coverage or interviews.
− "We've seen this so-called ceasefire for three days, which ended after just a couple of hours, and now we're supposed to naively think that two people will come and change something."
NPR does not offer or accept money for coverage or interviews.