Witkoff and Kushner reach Kyiv for their first wartime talks with Zelensky

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday for their first visit to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale war. They came from Moscow, where they spent three hours and ten minutes with Vladimir Putin on Saturday, then flew to Rzeszow-Jasionka in south-eastern Poland, landing at 1:31 a.m. local time. From there they entered Ukraine by train and stepped off at the capital's central station.

Kyrylo Budanov, head of the presidential office, Rustem Umerov and Davyd Arakhamia met them on the platform. Umerov posted a short welcome and said coordination on "further steps to end the war" would continue. Later the pair were received by Volodymyr Zelensky, including a greeting recorded at St Sophia Square. Zelensky had already said on Telegram that Ukraine's proposals were ready and that Kyiv wanted security guarantees and a durable peace, not a pause that expires when the guests leave.

A narrow ceasefire for two cities

The trip sits inside a tightly drawn pause. Zelensky said Ukraine would refrain from striking Moscow through Monday. The Kremlin said Putin had ordered no strikes on Kyiv from midnight Saturday through 9 September, a 72-hour window. Dmitry Peskov made clear that the halt applied to the capital, not the rest of the front. A Russian missile strike on Bucha and an airstrike on Kamianske on Saturday sat just outside that frame and showed how limited the gesture is.

Witkoff is Donald Trump's special envoy. Kushner is the president's son-in-law and a regular go-between. They have been to Moscow several times in this role. Sunday was the first time they brought that brief to Kyiv. Trump said on Friday that they were carrying a proposal to end the war and did not describe it. A White House official told Reuters that next steps would be announced in the coming weeks. Putin called Saturday's session "highly useful." Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov described the mood as frank and said part of the talk ran over dinner.

What Kyiv will press

Zelensky has said Ukraine faces an acute shortage of air-defence interceptors. That shortage is the practical backdrop to any conversation about pauses. A three-day halt over two capitals does not protect Kharkiv, Dnipro or the power grid. Ukrainian officials want written security guarantees, not a verbal freeze that Russia can lift after the envoys fly home.

After Kyiv, the Americans are expected to sit with representatives of Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Infobae, citing agency reporting, said that session would follow the Zelensky meeting. European governments have spent four years funding Ukraine's defence and will want to hear whether Washington's new paper asks Kyiv to trade land for a timetable.

Previous Trump-era rounds produced little that held. Sunday's visit changes one fact: the envoys have now stood in both capitals in the same weekend. The next fact that matters is whether the 72-hour clock is followed by a written proposal that Ukraine, Russia and the European backers can all read in the same words.