U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday for their first official visit to Ukraine as part of renewed peace efforts, more than four and a half years after Russia's full-scale invasion.
The American trip followed a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday, occurring while both sides have recently engaged in escalating aerial attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Sunday that his government is prepared for a "constructive" discussion with the U.S. emissaries.
Zelenskyy posted on Telegram, saying, “We are interested in bringing the end of the war closer. Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A just and sustainable postwar peace is needed. Our proposals are prepared.”
The envoys traveled by train and were greeted at Ukraine’s capital station by senior Ukrainian officials before meeting Zelenskyy during a ceremony in St. Sophia Square.
Washington's efforts to halt the fighting have slowed, as the Trump administration has focused on the Iran war over the last six months. The most recent visit of Witkoff and Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, to Moscow was in January, when they also held talks with Putin at the Kremlin.
No Major Breakthroughs from Moscow Talks
Saturday's meeting in Moscow lasted over three hours behind closed doors and concluded without any major developments being announced. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, characterized the discussions as constructive, frank, and useful but did not detail specific outcomes.
While Moscow presented its "comprehensive assessment" of the battlefield situation in Ukraine, Ushakov noted that the talks were not solely focused on the war in Ukraine.
He stated, “Economic issues and potentially large, mutually beneficial joint projects for Russia and America were discussed in considerable detail.”
Russia and Ukraine Continue Exchanges of Fire
The air war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified as troops have struggled to advance along the 1,250-kilometer (775-mile) front line. Russia has recently employed fast-flying, jet-powered drones, making the sound of air-raid sirens a regular feature of life in Kyiv.
Putin and Zelenskyy had previously agreed to suspend strikes on each other’s capitals during the talks. Nevertheless, officials reported that both sides exchanged fire overnight into Sunday.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that Russian attacks across several Ukrainian regions killed one person and injured at least 10 others overnight into Sunday.
In Zaporizhzhia, drone strikes resulted in the death of a 74-year-old man and wounded three people, while a drone damaged an apartment building in the Khmelnytskyi region, injuring seven individuals.
Ukraine’s air force announced on Sunday that it intercepted 82 out of 108 drones launched by Russia overnight, along with six missiles.
Local authorities in the Belgorod border region reported that a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle in Russia, killing one man and seriously wounding a woman.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated on Sunday that its air defenses shot down 258 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions, the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula, and the waters of the Black and Azov Seas overnight.
Mixed Hopes Emerge on the Ground
On Sunday in Kyiv, dozens gathered for a nationwide 9 a.m. moment of silence to honor Ukraine’s fallen soldiers, a daily observance held in cities across the country.
Nataliia Lipei, 67, whose son Viktor died in December 2022, was among those present. Despite a health issue, she has traveled between cities to participate and expressed hope that the Moscow and Kyiv talks will finally end the war.
Lipei told The Associated Press, “I hope these steps and these meetings will definitely produce results, because there has been so much bloodshed and so many deaths here that we have to stop all of this.”
Not everyone shared her optimism regarding the talks. Oleksandr Pastukhov, a 27-year-old video editor who attended the commemoration, was skeptical about whether the envoys' visit would cause any change.
He commented, “We’ve already seen delegations like this come here before. We’ve seen this so-called ceasefire for three days, which ended after just a couple of hours, and now we’re supposed to naively think that two people will come and change something.”