{"id":14549,"date":"2026-09-06T14:30:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T14:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=14549"},"modified":"2026-09-06T14:30:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T14:30:52","slug":"us-envoys-hold-talks-with-zelensky-on-first-kyiv-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=14549","title":{"rendered":"US envoys hold talks with Zelensky on first Kyiv visit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff held talks Sunday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on ending the war with Russia, making their first visit to Kyiv a day after meeting with Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Americans arrived in the Ukrainian capital by train, hoping to revive negotiations to end Europe\u2019s worst conflict since World War II, after a summer of escalation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelensky published a video of meeting US President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Kushner and business partner Witkoff in central Kyiv, saying: \u201cTalks have begun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witkoff and Kushner have visited Moscow eight times but had never held talks in Kyiv \u2014 hit by deadly strikes since Russia\u2019s February 2022 invasion \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine\u2019s top security officials and negotiators were also present, along with several European national security advisors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelensky showed the US envoys Kyiv\u2019s historic Saint Sophia\u2019s Cathedral, opposite the SBU security building, hit by a Russian drone Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin on Saturday to \u201cadvance President Trump\u2019s agenda of peace in the Russia-Ukraine War\u201d, a White House official said in a statement to AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe two sides discussed substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks, and look forward to equally productive meetings tomorrow in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov called the talks \u201cextremely frank\u201d, saying the Americans \u201cput forward a number of ideas on possible routes to a settlement\u201d, but did not elaborate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russian side told the Americans that Moscow was \u201cconfident\u201d it could achieve its military goals of seizing the rest of eastern Ukraine, Ushakov added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Russia and Ukraine have vowed not to strike each other\u2019s capitals for three days around the Americans\u2019 visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelensky on Sunday said Ukraine was \u201cready for the conversation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUkraine has always been and will remain constructive,\u201d the wartime leader said on social media ahead of their visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country\u2019s airspace has been closed since Moscow launched the war, and visiting leaders have been arriving by train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many Ukrainians, hopes of a breakthrough remain slim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt this point it doesn\u2019t give me any hope. There have already been too many negotiations,\u201d Yaroslav, a 29-year-old Kyiv resident, told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Putin thanks Trump<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In televised comments before the talks, Putin said Russia would ensure the safety of the envoys in Kyiv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will do everything that depends on us to ensure the safety of the negotiation process and mediators such as yourselves,\u201d Putin told Witkoff and Kushner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier Saturday, Putin had thanked Trump for persisting in his efforts to end the war despite it being \u201cnot simple\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the envoys\u2019 trip to Kyiv, he said: \u201cNo matter what happens next, contacts of this kind are undoubtedly always beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump said on Friday his envoys were bringing a \u201cproposal\u201d to end the fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have an idea for peace,\u201d he said, without elaborating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US efforts have so far not led to a breakthrough in the war, and peace efforts have stalled, in part because of Washington\u2019s war with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia has occupied large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, and Putin has insisted Moscow is intent on seizing the rest of eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limited truce<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite the ceasefire pledges for the capital cities, fighting continued elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine\u2019s air force said Russia had attacked overnight with 108 drones and missiles, while Moscow said it had shot down 258 drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, Putin said he had \u201cnoted that the Ukrainian side significantly reduced\u201d its strikes on Russia and Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Kyiv said that Russian strikes had killed 10 people across the country Saturday \u2014 including a child and his family members in the Kharkiv region and two people outside Kyiv.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff held talks Sunday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on ending the war with Russia, making their first visit..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ARY-1200-x-675-px-2026-09-06T180526.704.avif",1200,675,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ARY-1200-x-675-px-2026-09-06T180526.704-150x150.avif",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ARY-1200-x-675-px-2026-09-06T180526.704-300x169.avif",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ARY-1200-x-675-px-2026-09-06T180526.704-768x432.avif",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ARY-1200-x-675-px-2026-09-06T180526.704-1024x576.avif",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ARY-1200-x-675-px-2026-09-06T180526.704.avif",1200,675,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ARY-1200-x-675-px-2026-09-06T180526.704.avif",1200,675,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14551,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14549\/revisions\/14551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}