Three hours in the Kremlin on Saturday, three rounds of talks in Kyiv the next day. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s envoys, spent the weekend of September 5 and 6 shuttling between Putin and Zelenskyy. No breakthrough was announced.
What they came away with was a plan to bring back the format used about six months earlier: direct talks between the United States, Russia and Ukraine. “One thing Steve and I really thought would be productive is to go back to the trilateral format,” Kushner said in Kyiv. He said the earlier rounds let the two warring sides speak to each other directly instead of through Washington, and that the delegates had talked “all in Russian” in what he called a friendly manner.
Moscow first
Witkoff called the meeting with Putin a “good, concrete conversation”. Outlook India reported that Putin told the envoys he had “full trust” in Washington’s mediation. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described the talks as “useful” and said the Americans had “prepared seriously for this trip”. He added that the US side offered a series of ideas on possible paths to a settlement, without giving details. A White House official told CNN the sides had discussed plans for next steps that would be announced “in the coming weeks.”
Witkoff argued that talking to both capitals is the whole point. “If you don’t have relationships with both sides, and you have poor communication, then you probably have very, very little chance of getting to a peaceful resolution,” he said.
Then Kyiv
It was the first visit to Kyiv for either envoy. According to Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency, the first two rounds involved American and Ukrainian officials, and representatives of the United Kingdom, France and Germany joined the third. Zelenskyy said “several new ideas” came up in “good discussions”. A senior Ukrainian presidential official told AFP the new American proposals to halt the fighting were “more effective” than earlier ones.
Zelenskyy backed a return to three-way meetings but wanted room for Europe. “We must do everything possible to ensure that trilateral meetings take place, or trilateral meetings plus our European partners. We’ll see what Russia agrees to,” he said. He also said the shortage of air-defence interceptors was Ukraine’s weak spot against ballistic missiles, and that the US would raise production of Patriot missiles next year. Witkoff said he was “confident that there’ll be a good resolution here” and hoped a new round would be announced “in short order”. Ukraine’s rail operator confirmed both envoys left Kyiv early on Monday.
A truce with limits
Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a 72-hour pause in airstrikes on each other’s capitals while the envoys travelled, starting at midnight between Friday and Saturday. It covered Kyiv and Moscow only. Overnight into Sunday, Ukraine’s Air Force counted 108 Shahed-type drones launched at 11 locations, and at least three people died. Ukrainian authorities said 10 civilians had been killed and 65 injured over the previous 24 hours.
The old sticking points have not moved. Earlier US-mediated rounds ran aground on territory and security guarantees for Ukraine, News18 noted, and those disputes remain open.
Sources
- US Envoys Hold Talks With Russia, Ukraine. Is Peace Finally Within Reach? | World News – News18
- No Breakthrough, But Trump Envoys Push To Revive US-Russia-Ukraine Talks | Outlook India
