U.S. Envoys Make First Kyiv Visit Amid Push for Ukraine Peace Deal

AFP

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomes U.S. Special Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

U.S. peace envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Sunday, as the Trump administration renewed its efforts to broker an end to Russia’s four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.

Kushner and Witkoff travelled to Kyiv from Moscow, where they held more than three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.

Previous rounds of US-mediated peace talks, encouraged by President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to swiftly end the war, have produced limited results.

Trump said on Friday that the United States had put forward a new proposal, but did not provide further details.

Putin described Saturday's meeting as "highly useful", while a White House official told Reuters that next steps would be announced in the coming weeks.

The two envoys met Zelenskiy and other top Ukrainian officials in central Kyiv.

Zelenskiy, who believes Washington will be key to any peace deal, ⁠has said a window of opportunity to make peace exists before the U.S. begins focusing on its next presidential elections next summer.

In a post on social media before the envoys' arrival, Zelenskiy said he had held a preparatory meeting with his negotiating team and said Ukraine wanted an end to the war.

"Security guarantees are needed. A dignified post-war peace is needed. Our proposals have been drawn up," he said.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the British, French and German national security advisers were also in Kyiv on Sunday. The source did not specify which meetings they would participate in.

Witkoff and Kushner have visited Moscow several times in their roles as peace envoys. But Sunday will be their first visit to Kyiv in their capacity as U.S. negotiators.

In previous talks, the sides have remained far apart on a range of key issues, including the future of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. Russia has demanded Ukraine's withdrawal from an entrenched belt of towns that it still controls there, but Kyiv has refused, reasoning that it can still hold on there for years.



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