Witkoff, Kushner call Kyiv talks ‘substantive’ after Putin meeting yields no breakthrough

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv by train on Sunday for their first official visit to Ukraine, meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hours after holding more than three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow that ended without a breakthrough. Witkoff called the Kyiv discussions "substantive" and said he was "very encouraged," while Kushner said the delegation had "learned a lot from the trip." The visit marks a renewed push by the Trump administration to broker an end to Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, after months in which attention shifted to the war with Iran.npr+1

Talks in Two Capitals

Saturday's closed-door meeting at the Kremlin produced no announced agreement. Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov described the discussions as "constructive, frank and useful" and said the U.S. envoys had "outlined a number of ideas regarding possible avenues for a settlement," but offered no specifics. A White House official said "substantive plans for next steps" would be announced in the coming weeks.foxnews+1

In Kyiv, Zelenskyy stressed that any deal must include security guarantees. "Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A just and sustainable postwar peace is needed. Our proposals are prepared," he wrote on Telegram ahead of the meeting. National security advisers from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany were also in Kyiv for further talks planned later Sunday.thenationalnews+2

Witkoff told Zelenskyy that his mission was "to bring together the Russian and Ukrainian sides and narrow the gaps to reach a joint decision that ends the war," according to a source familiar with the discussions cited by Axios. Kushner said the administration sought "comprehensive and lasting peace, not just ending the current war in Ukraine."businessupturn

A Fragile Pause Amid Ongoing Fighting

Both capitals saw a brief reprieve from bombardment after Putin ordered a 72-hour pause on strikes against Kyiv and Zelenskyy pledged to halt attacks on Moscow through Monday. The arrangement did not extend to the broader front. Russian strikes overnight killed one person and injured at least ten across several Ukrainian regions, while Ukraine's air force said it intercepted 82 of 108 Russian drones launched overnight along with six missiles. Russia reported one death from a Ukrainian drone strike in its Belgorod border region.fortune+3

Deep Skepticism on the Ground

The visit was the envoys' first trip to Moscow since January and their first to Kyiv in any capacity as negotiators, underscoring the diplomatic lull created by the Iran conflict. Core disputes remain unresolved: Russia demands Ukrainian territorial concessions and an end to Kyiv's NATO aspirations, while Ukraine has refused to cede land.aljazeera+3

Not all Ukrainians shared optimism about the talks. Oleksandr Pastukhov, a 27-year-old in Kyiv, told the Associated Press: "We've already seen delegations like this come here before. 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."fortune