US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner travelled to Kyiv on Sunday after concluding intensive talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as Washington renews its push to end the war in Ukraine.
It marks their first visit to the Ukrainian capital since the war began and comes amid near-constant Russian missile and drone strikes on the Ukrainian capital.
After greeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the US envoy was taken on a tour of a cathedral in central Kyiv damaged in Russian attacks. St. Sophia’s Cathedral, which is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, has had its windows and window frames damaged. On Friday, CNN reported on a Russian strike hitting Ukraine’s Security Service headquarters in Kyiv, which also affected the cathedral.
Ahead of their meeting, the Ukrainian president thanked US President Donald Trump for allowing the trip to happen “from a security standpoint,” adding that Ukraine had been “waiting a long time” for Witkoff and Kushner’s visit.
Earlier, Zelensky wrote on Telegram, “We are ready for talks. Ukraine has always been and will continue to be constructive.” He added, “We are committed to bringing the war to an end. Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A dignified post-war peace is needed. Our proposals are ready.”
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Zelensky has previously stressed said that an acute shortage of air defense interceptors has left Ukraine vulnerable to ballistic missile attacks.
Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency, said that representatives from France, the UK and Germany were also in Kyiv. “We have a busy day ahead of us, filled with important talks,” he said.
Witkoff and Kushner made a stop in the Polish city of Rzeszow en route from Moscow to Kyiv, Russian state media outlet TASS reported. The plane landed at 1:31 a.m. local time. The US envoys most likely continued their journey by rail, it reported.
Russia and Ukraine have enacted a 72-hour temporary truce for the duration of the US envoys’ visits, specifically halting airstrikes on each other’s capitals, Kyiv and Moscow. The halt in strikes began at midnight on Friday into Saturday and will last for the duration of the weekend of diplomacy.
The truce applies only to the two capital cities, and overnight attacks into Sunday saw Russia continue its bombardment of Ukraine while avoiding Kyiv city. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russian forces launched 108 Shahed-type drones fired from Russia, while at least three people were killed in the latest strikes and infrastructure was hit in Kyiv region.
Russian airstrikes were recorded in 11 locations across Ukraine, while a large-scale fire has been extinguished at an infrastructure facility in Kyiv region as a result of a Russian strike.
In total, 10 Ukrainian civilians have been killed over the past 24 hours, and a further 65 injured.
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Witkoff and Kushner began their whirlwind weekend of diplomacy with a three-hour meeting with Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday afternoon. The negotiations were followed by dinner with the Russian leader, according to a Kremlin press briefing.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov later described the talks as “useful” and said the American representatives had “prepared seriously for this trip.” He said the US team expressed interest in ending hostilities as quickly as possible and offered “a whole series of considerations regarding possible paths to a settlement.”
A White House official said both sides “discussed substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks.”
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