American envoys Witkoff and Kushner arrive in Kyiv to discuss ending the war in Ukraine

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, arrived in Kiev on Sunday for talks on ending the war in Ukraine, the day after they met for more than three hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

This is the first visit by Trump's chief negotiators to the Ukrainian capital, after they visited Moscow several times since the US President returned to the White House.

American officials said that the two envoys hope that their meetings in Ukraine will be “equally productive,” after they discussed with Putin “substantial plans for the next steps,” according to the White House.

The details of these plans were not revealed, but Trump said that his envoys carry a “proposal to end the war,” amid expectations that an announcement will be issued in the coming weeks as diplomatic movements accelerate.

While Witkov and Kushner were holding their talks in the Kremlin, Zelensky said that his team was ready to hold “serious talks” and that Ukraine was interested in accelerating efforts to end the war.

He added, in a post on social media, that achieving peace requires security guarantees, stressing the importance of working “in coordination, objectivity and realism.”

Putin's talks with Witkov and Kushner in the Kremlin lasted three hours and ten minutes, and focused on efforts to end the war, along with other files in relations between Moscow and Washington.

Yuri Ushakov, Assistant to the Russian President, described the meeting as “fruitful, constructive and frank to the maximum extent,” and said that its atmosphere was characterized by trust.

He added that the discussion was not limited to settling the war in Ukraine, but also discussed in detail economic issues and potential major Russian-American projects that achieve mutual benefit.

Ushakov said that the American envoys expressed a desire to stop hostilities as soon as possible, and presented a "set of ideas" regarding possible ways to reach a settlement.

On the other hand, the Russian side presented a detailed assessment of the situation on the ground, and pointed to what it described as the “tangible progress” of its forces, stressing the need to address what Moscow calls “the root causes of the conflict.”

At the beginning of the meeting, Putin praised Trump's efforts to reach a settlement, saying that contacts with the United States were "always fruitful." Witkoff conveyed to him the greetings of the US President and thanked him for the measures taken to ensure the safety of the delegation.

But the statements that followed the meeting did not include an announcement of an agreement or breakthrough on the main outstanding issues between Moscow and Kiev.

Ushakov said that direct contacts between Putin and Trump will continue, in addition to continuing work through Witkov and Kushner.

The envoys' tour was accompanied by a limited understanding to spare Moscow and Kiev air strikes for three days, without reaching a broader ceasefire along the battle lines.

Putin ordered Russian forces to refrain from targeting Kiev for three days, starting at midnight on Saturday, while Zelensky announced Ukraine's readiness to stop strikes on Moscow until the end of Monday, demanding the same from Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the decision to suspend the strikes on Kiev was taken within the framework of "preparing for the contacts that the Americans will conduct" in the Ukrainian capital.

Zelensky had pledged to ensure the safety of Russian airspace during the presence of Witkov and Kushner in Moscow, and called on Russia to provide a similar guarantee during their visit to Kiev.

But Moscow did not announce its approval of the Ukrainian proposal for a three-day truce along the front line.

Russian and Ukrainian forces continued to exchange blows before the start of the limited truce, in light of mutual accusations of non-compliance with ceasefire proposals.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia attacked the country with 108 long-range drones and cruise missiles, explaining that the air defenses shot down 82 drones and six missiles.

It added that the strikes hit 11 sites, while projectile debris fell in seven other sites.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it carried out a "mass strike" using high-precision weapons and long-range attack drones, targeting metal factories in the Dnipropetrovsk region that it said supplied facilities for Ukrainian military industries, as well as logistics centers and power stations in the city of Mykolaiv and the Mykolaiv and Odessa regions.

Zelensky accused Russia of carrying out "show" strikes on the Kiev and Boryspil airports prior to the American delegation's visit, considering that they came in response to discussions about the possibility of the envoys arriving by air at one of the two airports.

On the other hand, Ukraine announced the targeting of an oil refinery, an airport, and two air defense systems inside Russia. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said that its forces struck the Ryazan refinery, which it says supplies the Russian army with fuel, as well as an airport in the city of Rostov-on-Don.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 53 Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region, Krasnodar Territory, and other regions.

Russia and Ukraine have intensified their air attacks in recent months. Kiev says the lack of interceptor missiles limits its ability to confront Russian ballistic missiles, while Ukrainian forces are focusing their strikes inside Russia on oil facilities and other economic infrastructure targets.

The Kremlin confirmed on the eve of the envoys’ visit that Putin’s conditions for ending the war had not changed. These conditions include demanding that Ukraine withdraw from the entire territory of four regions that Russia claims to annex, and abandon its efforts to join NATO.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had lowered expectations before the arrival of Witkov and Kushner, saying that the success of their mission depended on the US administration’s willingness to work to reach what he described as a “real solution” that takes into account “the facts on the ground.”

Ryabkov criticized what he said were changes that had occurred in Washington's position since the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska in August 2025, questioning the extent of the US administration's adherence to the framework that was discussed during it.

The issues of territory, security guarantees, and the future of Ukraine's relationship with NATO remain at the heart of disagreements between the two sides.

Although Russia intensified its attacks on Ukrainian cities, its ground forces achieved only limited progress during most of the war, in exchange for heavy human and material losses. Moscow still controls about a fifth of Ukraine's territory, including territories it occupied before the comprehensive invasion in February 2022 and others it seized after it.