US envoys hold peace talks in Moscow and Kyiv

According to the Kremlin, Russia is not ruling out resuming peace talks with Ukraine and the USA. However, it is still too early to talk about the place and time of such negotiations, said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday. A telephone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump to discuss the latest mediation efforts is also possible.

Peskov commented on the visit of US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kiev last weekend. These are trying to revive stalled talks to end the war in Ukraine. Russia has not yet received any information about the US envoy's discussions with Ukrainian government officials in Kiev on Sunday, Peskov said.

According to Russian authorities, several people have been killed in Ukrainian counterattacks in Russia and on the Russian-annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. In Perm region, one person died as a result of a Ukrainian attack, according to regional governor Dmitry Makhonin. Four others were injured and a multi-story residential building was damaged. Machonin spoke of a massive attack in which 27 Ukrainian drones were repelled over the Perm region.

In Crimea, the Moscow-appointed governor of the city of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvoshayev, reported that a man and a teenage girl had also been killed in a Ukrainian attack. Eight multi-story residential buildings were damaged.

In the border region of Belgorod, a man was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in the town of Graivoron, according to the regional civil defense headquarters. A woman was injured. According to the information, another person was injured in further attacks and there was damage and fires.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Ukrainian attacks on targets in Russia. A refinery in the Ryazan region was damaged. Accordingly, refineries in the Perm region and the Republic of Tatarstan were also targeted. Targets in the Kursk region and the Black Sea were also attacked.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed little optimism about the prospects for an early peace after his talks with representatives of the USA and Europe. “If the war drags on until winter, and that is what it looks like at the moment, we need a “winter package,” said Zelensky, according to Ukrainian media. He spoke about this for a long time with US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as well as European representatives. He simply called the discussions themselves “extremely content-packed.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the talks with US peace negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as “very substantial”. Zelensky told journalists that this included, among other things, security and economic guarantees for Ukraine, a recovery plan, the delivery of anti-aircraft missiles and a winter aid package. He hopes that the US delegation will return to Kyiv soon. In addition, everything must be done to ensure that trilateral meetings with the USA and Russia can take place. We have to wait and see what the government in Moscow says about this. Americans and Europeans have noticed that Ukraine has become stronger.

According to his son-in-law Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump is seeking lasting peace for Ukraine. All future agreements should exclude the possibility of another war and give Ukraine the opportunity to use the ingenuity demonstrated during the war years for the further development of the country, Kushner said on the sidelines of the talks in Kiev, according to the Ukrainian agency Unian.

Russia says it attacked a Ukrainian freighter in the Black Sea. The ship had military equipment on board that was intended by Western states for the Ukrainian army, Russian news agencies report, citing the Defense Ministry in Moscow.

The first round of talks between US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Ukraine has ended. Witkoff speaks of an encouraging, substantive and important discussion. Kushner added that U.S. negotiators look forward to making further progress.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj began his talks with US mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Kiev. Selenskyj announced this on the X portal. A short video showed him greeting US negotiators in the square in front of the medieval St. Sophia Cathedral.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calls the German accusations against Moscow over the attempted bomb attack at Leipzig airport the “beginning of a real war.” The minister told Russian state television: "Leipzig, airport (...) They found a drone there. They said it was a Russian drone. Nobody clarified that. Strictly speaking, this is the beginning of a real war."

According to information from Kiev, the national security advisors of Great Britain, France and Germany (E3 format) are also in the Ukrainian capital. It was not mentioned which discussions the Chancellor's foreign and security policy advisor, Günter Sautter, was taking part in.

The Ukrainian military said it attacked the oil refinery in Ryazan, Russia, during the night. The big city is located south of Moscow. Ukraine has been repeatedly attacking oil refineries and oil storage facilities in Russia for some time in an attempt to disrupt supplies to the Russian military. There has already been significant damage to the systems and operations have to be interrupted again and again. As a result, gasoline and diesel have already been rationed in almost all regions of Russia.

US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. The two want to consult with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. On Saturday they spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The aim of the consultations is to end the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated before a meeting with US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner that his country wanted an end to the war started by Russia. But Ukraine needs security guarantees. A meeting with Witkoff and Kushner is planned for this Sunday in Kiev. The two met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday. Details of this conversation were not disclosed.

During a US mediation mission, Russia and Ukraine, as agreed, spared the capitals Kiev and Moscow from attacks, but attacked from the air in other places. In Ukraine, the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is close to the front, was shelled and, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov, there were victims.

According to local authorities, Russian drones hit a border crossing on Ukraine's border with Romania. This had to be closed temporarily. On Saturday evening, a Russian drone killed three members of a family in the city of Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at the Ryazan refinery, southeast of Moscow, Telegram channels unofficially reported. Regional Governor Pavel Malkov confirmed the attack and a fire at an unspecified industrial plant. Drone attacks were also reported in the Rostov region in southern Russia.

After meeting with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow, US mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner travel to Kiev for the first time for talks about a possible end to the war in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj wants to receive US President Donald Trump's envoys in the Ukrainian capital today. The visit will take place under the protection of a local, three-day ceasefire declared by Zelensky and Putin. Moscow has pledged to refrain from air strikes against the city of Kiev for the safety of US envoys.

Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law left the Kremlin that night after a three-hour conversation with Putin. According to reports, the conversation initially did not produce any tangible results. Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov then spoke of constructive, content-rich and trusting discussions. The US side initially did not comment publicly on the conversation with the Russian head of state.

The new talks on the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine between Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, which were scheduled at short notice, have come to an end in Moscow. After around three hours of discussions, US President Donald Trump's two envoys left the Kremlin that night, as state media reported and also published a video of the motorcade.

Nothing is yet known about the results of the discussions. The Kremlin had announced that it would inform the public following the meeting.

According to a media report, Russian President Vladimir Putin is starting talks with US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin. This emerges from a video on the channel of the Russian Presidential Office on the messenger service MAX. Putin describes the situation they would have to deal with in the negotiations as “difficult.”

According to the USA, NATO states must not tolerate targeted hybrid attacks. The attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport last month is more worrying than stray Russian drones, says US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker on the sidelines of a conference in Italy. NATO members must be vigilant and send a clear message as soon as the perpetrators of such acts are identified. Critical infrastructure such as energy systems could also be targeted. Responding to these challenges is primarily a national task, but the USA stands by the affected countries. Germany blames Russia for the incident in Leipzig.

According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russian forces attacked two bulk carriers and a container ship in the port of Chornomorsk and another freighter near Odessa. The ships would be used to transport military supplies for the Ukrainian armed forces, reports the Interfax news agency, citing the ministry.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a 72-hour pause in attacks on Kiev. “Putin has ordered that no attacks on Kiev may be carried out for three days from midnight today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state news agency Tass on Saturday. The move comes in connection with preparations for US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner's trip to Kiev for peace talks.

Peskov confirmed that Putin would receive US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner this Saturday. Ukraine had already promised yesterday not to endanger Russian airspace for three days because of this visit. The two US negotiators are expected to hold talks in Kiev for the first time on Sunday.

A convoy with US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner leaves the airport and heads towards downtown Moscow. Kirill Dmitriev, adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was also in the motorcade, a Reuters eyewitness reported. The Russian state news agency Tass had previously reported that Putin confidant Kirill Dmitriyev had received the two US negotiators at the airport.

Five people were killed in a Russian rocket attack on a steel mill in the eastern Ukrainian region of Dnipro. Steel producer Metinvest said production facilities and infrastructure were damaged and all operations were therefore stopped. “This is a new attack on a Metinvest civilian steel production facility and further evidence of Russia's systematic attacks on Ukrainian industry,” the company explains. The Kamet steelworks produces pig iron and steel exclusively for civil purposes.

Five people have been killed in Ukrainian attacks in the Russian-controlled part of the Luhansk region of Ukraine in the past 24 hours. Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-appointed governor, said five more people were injured in the occupied territory.