US envoys arrive in Ukraine for talks after meeting Putin in Russia

Full account

Two senior US envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, travelled to Kyiv on Sunday to hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a day after a lengthy meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow as part of Washington's renewed push to end the war. The pair, both trusted negotiators for President Donald Trump, spent more than three hours behind closed doors with Putin at his official residence on Saturday, and a White House official said the two sides had discussed 'substantive plans for next steps', with a formal announcement expected within weeks. The Ukraine leg marked the first time Trump's negotiating team had visited Kyiv in person, and officials said they hoped for 'equally productive meetings' with Zelensky.

Ahead of the Americans' arrival, Zelensky said he had already convened his negotiating team and declared Ukraine 'ready for the conversation', insisting that Kyiv remained constructive and wanted to see the war brought to a close. Writing on social media, he stressed the need for lasting peace, robust security guarantees and a settlement that preserved Ukraine's dignity, adding that Kyiv's own proposals were prepared and that talks needed to proceed in a coordinated and realistic fashion. His remarks suggested Ukraine was keen to be seen as an active participant in shaping any deal, rather than simply responding to terms worked out between Washington and Moscow.

On the Russian side, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov characterised the Moscow talks as constructive and frank, saying Putin had given the American delegation a detailed briefing on the state of the battlefield, including what he described as tangible Russian gains, and that both sides agreed any settlement must tackle the underlying causes of the conflict. Ushakov also noted the discussions had ranged well beyond the war itself, touching on potential large-scale economic cooperation between Russia and the United States. Despite the warm characterisations from both capitals, no concrete breakthroughs were disclosed, and significant obstacles remain, notably Moscow's demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from parts of Donetsk and Luhansk still under Kyiv's control, a condition Ukraine has rejected.

The diplomatic push unfolded against a backdrop of continued fighting, with both sides trading heavy strikes overnight despite an earlier agreement to pause attacks on each other's capital cities for three days. Ukraine's air force reported that Russia had launched over a hundred long-range drones and cruise missiles, most of which were intercepted, while Ukrainian forces said they had struck an oil refinery supplying the Russian military along with an airfield and air defence installations inside Russia. The renewed diplomatic effort follows a period in which momentum towards a settlement had stalled, partly because American attention had been diverted towards the conflict involving Iran, underlining the scale of the challenge facing Witkoff and Kushner as they seek to translate cordial rhetoric into a workable peace framework.

• www.bbc.co.uk
• www.foxnews.com