Witkoff, Kushner Hold 'Substantive' First-Ever Kyiv Talks with Zelensky, Push for Trilateral Format

September 6, 2026 — Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled from Moscow to Kyiv by train (Kyiv airspace remains closed to fixed-wing traffic under Russian drone threat) for their first-ever visit to the Ukrainian capital since Russia's 2022 invasion, meeting President Zelensky twice with senior Ukrainian security officials and negotiators, with UK, French, and German national security advisers joining a third round. Zelensky, who greeted the envoys and gave them a tour of the bomb-damaged St. Sophia's Cathedral, said 'talks have begun' and that lasting peace requires 'security guarantees' and 'a dignified postwar peace,' noting Kyiv had prepared its own proposals; Kushner said Trump wants 'not just to figure out how we end the current war, but how do we create the right conditions and arrangements for a long-term, durable peace,' while Witkoff called the discussions 'substantive, important,' adding 'we are very encouraged' and that he was 'confident there'll be a good resolution here.' Following the talks, the envoys pushed for a return to trilateral US-Russia-Ukraine negotiations and said a 'refreshed' peace proposal would follow within weeks; the Donbas withdrawal question remains the central unresolved obstacle, with Russia demanding Ukrainian withdrawal from territory it still holds and Kyiv refusing. Both sides' capital-strike pause (Russia on Kyiv, Ukraine on Moscow) held through the visit, though fighting continued elsewhere along the front and Ukraine remains critically short of US-made air-defense interceptors.