President Trump’s White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner held “encouraging” talks in Kyiv, part of a trip that began in Moscow in the latest push to end more than 4½ years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The trip marks the first time the envoys have traveled to Ukraine since Mr. Trump returned to office with a pledge to solve the conflict.
After two rounds of discussion with the U.S. officials, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the goal was a “just, fair peace” that would ensure there was “never an opportunity to resume aggression against Ukraine.” He said the next round of talks later Sunday would bring in national security advisers from Britain, France and Germany.
“We’ve had very meaningful discussion, substantive, important, and we’re very encouraged,” Witkoff said.
Kushner said Mr. Trump sees it as important “not just to figure out how do we end the current war,” but how to create the conditions for durable peace.
A senior Ukrainian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly, told The Associated Press that much of the discussion was focused on “how to get through the winter and what can be done before then.”
Witkoff and Kushner held a three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday in Moscow, where they “discussed substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks,” according to a White House official.
Prior to Witkoff and Kushner’s departure, Mr. Trump told reporters the envoys were traveling to Ukraine and Russia with a proposal to end the conflict. Mr. Trump said they had had “an idea for peace,” and that “there may be a good chance that we’ll do it.”
After the meeting, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in a statement that “our American colleagues made serious preparations for this trip,” and they had “also formulated a number of ideas regarding possible paths to a settlement,” but did not elaborate on what those might be.
At the start of the meeting in Moscow, which was captured on video, Putin asked Kushner and Witkoff to pass on his warm wishes and gratitude to Mr. Trump, and described the situation in Ukraine as “not simple.”
Ushakov added that the talks also discussed in “some detail” potential deals between the U.S. and Russia that would be “mutually beneficial.”
Both Ukraine and Russia agreed Saturday to pause strikes while the envoys were in the country to allow for talks to take place.
“Putin has ordered that no strikes be carried out against Kyiv for three days,” presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s Tass news agency, saying the decision was tied to Witkoff and Kushner’s planned visit to the Ukrainian capital. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy mirrored the decision by halting strikes until Monday.
In his Sunday prayer, Pope Leo XIV renewed his appeal for peace in Ukraine and said he hopes the negotiations will bring results.
“I hope that the efforts undertaken in recent days to resume negotiations will bear concrete fruit and make way for diplomacy,” he told the gathered faithful in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
The White House official also told CBS News that the U.S. delegation thanked Putin for the release of U.S. Marine veteran Robert Gilman, a 32-year-old teacher who had been imprisoned in Russia since 2022. Gilman was freed and allowed to return home last month. Before his release, Gilman was hospitalized in serious condition after he had allegedly been subjected to severe mistreatment, according to Global Reach, an organization that worked to free him.
