President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are set to meet with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv on Sunday, a day after meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss plans toward ending the war in Ukraine.Both Russia and Ukraine agreed to hold off on aerial attacks on each other’s capitals to enable the U.S.visits over the weekend, bringing a brief respite in the cities, though no broader ceasefire is in place.The renewed talks are an apparent attempt to revive Washington’s bid to end the conflict, which is in its fifth year, after months in which momentum has been stalled by the Iran war.
While there has been little recent movement on the front lines, the talks come ahead of a likely difficult winter in Kyiv, which is facing a critical shortage of U.S.-made interceptor missiles able to repel Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.Sunday’s visit to Kyiv is believed to be the first to be made by Witkoff and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, as part of the peace effort.Witkoff has visited Moscow several times, most recently holding talks with Putin at the Kremlin in January.Witkoff on Saturday appeared to strike a particularly warm tone during the meeting with Putin.
In video published by Russia’s state-owned news outlet RIA Novosti, he told the Russian leader that the delegation had been reflecting on how “when we retire, we’ll have all these incredible stories and incredible memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all.”Putin, for his part, did not publicly signal any movement from his previous steep demands, which seek major concessions from Ukraine.He praised Witkoff and Kushner in the video, telling them: “I would like to say that working with you is a comfortable experience for us, and we certainly place a high level of trust in you throughout this process.”A White House official said “substantive plans for the next steps” in the effort to end the war were at the center of the talks in Moscow ...