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Trump envoys hold Kyiv talks with Zelenskyy a day
September 6, 2026
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are in Kyiv for talks after meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as Washington renews its push to end the war.
Russia's war in Ukraine is approaching a fifth year, and the United States has made repeated attempts to broker an end to it, with control of territory in eastern Ukraine among the sticking points the two sides have never settled.
Key facts
- Across the previous 24 hours, the civilian toll in Ukraine reached 10 dead and another 65 wounded.
- Authorities in Ukraine said on Sunday that the past day left no fewer than eight people dead and 69 hurt nationwide.
- American envoys Kushner and Witkoff landed in Kyiv, their first visit to Ukraine, a day after what was described in Moscow as “substantive plans” for ending the war.
- Witkoff and Kushner, the latter a son-in-law of President Donald Trump, came to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian officials once their intensive sessions with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow wrapped up, part of a renewed American effort to bring the war to a close.
- Before the two sides sat down, the Ukrainian president offered thanks to President Donald Trump for making the trip possible “from a security standpoint,” and said his country had been “waiting a long time” for the visit by Witkoff and Kushner.
The Guardian reports that Kushner and Witkoff reached Kyiv for a second day of talks on ending the war, their first visit to Ukraine. CNN reports the two arrived after concluding intensive meetings with Putin in Moscow, and that Zelenskyy thanked Trump for clearing the trip on security grounds before the two sides sat down. NBC News reports that Putin aide Yury Ushakov described the Moscow session, held partly over dinner, as frank and trusting, and counted it as the eighth visit by the American delegation to Russia. The Washington Post ties the envoys' presence in Kyiv to the effort to restart Russia and Ukraine negotiations after the Putin meeting, and the Wall Street Journal reads the Moscow encounter the same way, as a U.S. attempt to revive the talks.
The outlets corroborate the sequence and the caution around it. The Guardian reports that a White House official called the Moscow discussions a step toward next steps for ending the war, with an announcement promised in the coming weeks, and NBC News carries the same account. The Guardian and NBC News also report that Putin gave no public sign of moving off demands that would require large concessions from Ukraine, and NBC News reports the negotiations had been effectively paused for months because of the Iran war. On the ground, The Guardian reports a critical shortage of American made Patriot interceptors and Russian use of new jet powered drones reaching 250mph, which are difficult to shoot down. Skepticism in Ukraine runs through several accounts, including a political analyst quoted by The Guardian saying trust is absent on both the Russian side and Trump personally.
One figure diverges. On the past day of Russian strikes, one account puts the toll at 10 killed and 65 injured over 24 hours, while another gives at least eight killed and 69 injured across Ukraine, with one drawn from a 24 hour window and the other from authorities' Sunday count. What is reported is the sequence and the tone. The envoys met Putin in Moscow, then went to Kyiv for a second day of talks, and officials on each side describe the discussions as substantive. What is unresolved is the content of any agreement, with control of territory in eastern Ukraine still unbridged.
A senior aide in the Kremlin, Yuri Ushakov, called the sessions “extremely frank” and said both sides recognized a need to deal with “the root causes of the conflict”.
Still developing
The record holds nothing unresolved about the envoys' Kyiv talks at the time of draft, and no account offers a different figure or framing.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- CNN — Witkoff and Kushner meet Zelensky in Kyiv for second leg of US diplomacy push
- NBC News — U.S. envoys Witkoff and Kushner meet with Zelenskyy in Kyiv after peace talks in Moscow
- The Guardian — US envoys Kushner and Witkoff arrive in Kyiv after talks with Putin