US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held their first round of peace talks in Kyiv on Sunday, September 6, 2026, one day after a three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Although the pair had traveled to Moscow eight times, it was their first visit to the Ukrainian capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to the table with written proposals of Ukraine’s own. “Security guarantees are needed,” he told Ukrainians as the talks began, making clear that protection against a future Russian attack sits at the top of Kyiv’s list.
Arrival by train and a stop at St. Sophia
Russian strikes, including attacks near Kyiv’s airport, ruled out a flight. The envoys flew from Moscow to Rzeszów in Poland and continued to Kyiv by train. Zelenskyy met them on Sofiiska Square and took them into St. Sophia Cathedral, which stands opposite the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) building hit by a Russian drone two days earlier.
For the duration of the visit, Russia and Ukraine agreed not to strike each other’s capitals. The Kremlin rejected Kyiv’s call for a broader pause, and fighting continued elsewhere. Ukraine’s Air Force reported 108 Russian drones and missiles overnight, while Ukraine said it hit the Ryazan oil refinery, roughly 470 kilometers inside Russia.
Who was at the table
Ukraine’s delegation included Kyrylo Budanov, head of the President’s Office; Rustem Umerov, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service; David Arakhamia, who leads the Servant of the People faction in parliament; and Serhii Kyslytsia, first deputy head of the President’s Office.
The day ran in stages. A bilateral session with the Americans came first, followed by an expanded round that brought in the national security advisers of the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Zelenskyy said the agenda covered winter support, security and economic guarantees, and supplies of Patriot air defense systems.
“Substantive” talks, but no breakthrough
Witkoff described the discussions as substantive, concrete and meaningful, and said the US team was encouraged and ready to keep working in close coordination with Germany, France and the UK. Kushner called ending the war “a very, very hard and complex problem” but “a very worthy problem of solving,” adding that President Donald Trump wants a lasting peace rather than just a halt to the fighting, followed by investment and economic cooperation.
Kushner said Washington would like to return to three-way talks with both Russia and Ukraine, a format last used about six months earlier. A White House official said the parties discussed plans for next steps, which would be announced in the coming weeks, and Trump was expected to speak with Putin and then Zelenskyy after being briefed.
Zelenskyy welcomed the resumption of talks but was blunt about the outlook. “We expect the war will continue,” he said, adding that Ukraine is counting on US winter support for air defense and energy, and that the US plans to increase Patriot production next year. He also repeated that territorial questions can only be settled at the level of national leaders.
Moscow sticks to its demands
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov called the Moscow meeting frank and useful, but said Putin told the envoys that Russia would achieve its war aims and that the “root causes” of the conflict must be eliminated. Moscow uses that phrase to mean Ukraine giving up on NATO membership and accepting limits on its army, demands Kyiv has rejected since 2022.
The two sides remain far apart on territory. Russia wants Ukraine to withdraw from the fortified belt of towns it still holds in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and it rejects a ceasefire along the current front line. Budanov has said talks could resume in late September, after Russia’s State Duma elections and before the US midterms.
Sources
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