Kyiv, Ukraine —
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Sunday advocated a return to trilateral talks between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine after holding “substantive” talks with Ukrainian officials in Kiev.
It was the first visit to Ukraine’s capital since the war began, and it came amid near-constant Russian missile and drone attacks on the city. No major developments were announced after Sunday’s talks, but Witkoff said he was “confident we can get a good solution here.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “some new ideas” were discussed during “good talks” with the United States, but he did not elaborate on what those ideas were.
The talks followed intense talks between Witkoff and Kushner with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow as part of a renewed U.S. push to end the war in Ukraine.
“One of the things that Steve (Witkoff) and I thought would be really productive is to get back to the trilateral system that we were able to achieve about six months ago,” Kushner said at a news conference after the meeting in Kiev.
Promoting tripartite talks with the US, Ukraine, and Russia
Kushner said he preferred tripartite talks because the United States would not have to speak on behalf of Ukraine or Russia and all parties could communicate directly. “Everyone spoke to each other in Russian and really discussed these issues seriously in a very friendly manner,” he said of the three-way negotiations so far.
He added that the United States had discussed the idea with both sides and was “hopeful that we can make progress soon.” Previous tripartite talks mediated by the United States have failed to resolve key issues such as Ukraine’s territory and security.
President Zelenskiy agreed: “We must do everything possible to ensure that the trilateral meeting or the trilateral meeting and the European partners take place. We will wait and see what Russia agrees to.”
Regarding his recent trip to Russia, Witkov said his team had “concrete and good conversations” with Putin.
“If you don’t have a relationship with both sides and there’s poor communication, it’s probably very unlikely that you’ll reach a peaceful resolution,” Witkoff said.
Negotiations between the United States and Ukraine concluded Sunday evening local time after two rounds of talks followed by a third round with European representatives. British, French and German officials were present in Kyiv, according to Kyrilo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s presidential administration.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine, Europe and the United States planned to meet again “in the near future.”
“We want to prevent loss of life, we want this war to end fairly for all of us, and we want to end it in such a way that Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is never repeated,” President Zelenskiy said at a press conference after the first meeting.
“I believe every meeting like this will move us closer to that goal,” he added.
Zelenskiy’s spokesman Serhiy Nikiforov said the T-shirts with the slogan “Kiev Regime” were prepared by the Ukrainian president as a gift for those attending the meeting.
The US envoy arrived in the Ukrainian capital and was taken on a tour of the cathedral in central Kiev, which had been damaged in the Russian attack. The Cathedral of Saint Sophia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, sustained damage to its windows and window frames. CNN reported on Friday that a Russian attack on the headquarters of Ukraine’s Security Service in Kiev also affected the cathedral.
Ahead of the meeting, Ukraine’s president thanked Trump for allowing the visit “for security reasons,” adding that Ukraine “has been waiting for a long time” for Witkov and Kushner to visit.
President Zelenskiy on Sunday stressed that a severe shortage of air defense interceptor missiles makes Ukraine vulnerable to ballistic missile attacks, calling it the country’s “weak link.”
“The US side will increase production of Patriot anti-ballistic missiles next year,” Zelenskiy said. “We’re going to increase that amount next year because we rely on systems like that to protect our country. I have confidence in that.”
Witkov and Kushner stopped in the Polish city of Rzeszow on their way from Moscow to Kiev, Russian state media TASS reported. The plane landed at 1:31 a.m. local time.
The U.S. envoys continued their journey to Kiev by train, but Witkov later said, “I didn’t like trains. I loved them.”
Russia and Ukraine reached a temporary 72-hour cease-fire during the US envoy’s visit, halting airstrikes on each other’s capital Kiev and Moscow, among other things. The strike suspension began late Friday night into Saturday and will continue through the diplomatic weekend.
The ceasefire agreement applies only to the two capitals. In overnight attacks into Sunday, Russia continued to bombard Ukraine while avoiding the city of Kiev. According to Ukraine’s air force, the Russian military launched 108 Shahed-class drones from Russia, killing at least three people and damaging infrastructure in the Kiev region.
Russian airstrikes were recorded in 11 locations across Ukraine, while a large fire that broke out at an infrastructure facility in the Kyiv region as a result of Russian airstrikes was extinguished.
A total of 10 Ukrainian civilians were killed and another 65 injured in the past 24 hours.
Witkoff and Kushner kicked off a whirlwind weekend of diplomacy with a three-hour meeting with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Saturday afternoon. The negotiations were followed by a dinner with Russian leaders, according to a Kremlin press conference.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov later said the meeting had been “instructive” and that the U.S. delegation had “seriously prepared for this visit.” He said the U.S. team had expressed an interest in ending hostilities as soon as possible and proposed “a series of considerations on possible paths to reconciliation.”
A White House official said the two sides were “discussing substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks.”
