Today, Sunday, American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will head to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in a new stop as part of American efforts to revive peace efforts and push the path to ending the Russian war on Ukraine.
This is the first visit by Witkopf and Kushner to Kiev since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, after he pledged to work to end the conflict.
The two envoys are scheduled to travel by air to the Ukrainian capital, in an unusual step, as Ukrainian airspace remains closed since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, while most of the leaders and officials who visited Kiev arrived there by train.
Trump said that he sent Witkoff and Kushner as “brilliant negotiators,” adding that they “did a great job” and that the goal of the visit was to see if an agreement could be reached, considering that there was a “good chance” of achieving that.
Trump revealed that the two envoys carried with them a proposal to end the war, but he declined to clarify whether the plan included giving up territory to Ukraine, saying only: “We have an idea for peace.”
The visit to Kiev comes the day after Witkov and Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, in an attempt to revive the course of negotiations, coinciding with the escalation of mutual air attacks between Russia and Ukraine.
The meeting with Putin continued for more than 3 hours behind closed doors, without announcing a breakthrough or tangible breakthrough in the negotiations.
Russian President’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Yuri Ushakov described the meeting as “constructive, frank and useful,” without revealing specific results, noting that the talks were not limited to the war file.
These contacts fall within the framework of the ongoing Russian-American efforts to seek a settlement to the conflict, after the diplomatic efforts led by Washington faltered in recent months as its focus shifted to the war with Iran.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine turned into the worst conflict in Europe since World War II, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
