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U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday for their first visit to the Ukrainian capital, a day after holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on efforts to end the more than four-year war.
An Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter saw the two envoys arrive in Kyiv by train. They are expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Washington seeks to revive negotiations after a summer of escalation.
Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s business partner, and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, have traveled to Moscow several times during the war but had not previously held talks in Kyiv.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions since it began in February 2022.
Witkoff and Kushner met Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday to “advance President Trump’s agenda of peace in the Russia-Ukraine War,” a White House official said in a statement to AFP.
“The two sides discussed substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks, and look forward to equally productive meetings tomorrow in Ukraine,” the official said.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described the talks as “extremely frank” and said the U.S. envoys “put forward a number of ideas on possible routes to a settlement,” without providing details.
Ushakov said the Russian side told the Americans that Moscow was “confident” it could achieve its military goal of taking the remaining parts of eastern Ukraine.
The trip marked Witkoff and Kushner’s eighth visit to Moscow during the war.
Russia’s Tass news agency reported early Sunday that the two envoys had reached Rzeszow, Poland, while traveling to Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said ahead of their arrival that Ukraine was prepared for the discussions.
“Ukraine has always been and will remain constructive,” he wrote on social media.
Russia and Ukraine have both pledged not to strike each other’s capitals for three days to allow the negotiations to proceed.
Ukraine’s airspace has remained closed since Russia launched the war in February 2022, and visiting foreign officials have generally traveled into the country by train.
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