Witkoff and Kushner travel to Moscow and Kyiv for talks on ending the war

US President Donald Trump's special representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow and Kyiv this weekend, where they will hold talks with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky on a possible end to the Russian-Ukrainian war.

According to Axios, US officials reported the travel plans. Witkoff and Kushner will depart on Friday, September 4. On Saturday, they are to hold talks with Putin in the Kremlin, after which they will head to Ukraine and meet with Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday.

For Witkoff and Kushner, this will be their first visit to Kyiv since Trump's return to the White House. On the eve of the trip, Thursday, both representatives met with the US president at the White House and discussed the upcoming talks.

The trip to Kyiv was prepared for several months

Ukrainian and American officials told Axios that the possibility of a visit by Trump's representatives to Kyiv had been discussed for several months. In recent days, the trip was cast into doubt several times for various reasons, but ultimately the sides agreed to hold it this weekend.

The current mission will be another attempt by the Trump administration to bring Russian-Ukrainian negotiations back to an active phase. The negotiation process mediated by the US was suspended in mid-February after the start of the war with Iran.

In the following months, Witkoff and Kushner continued to separately contact representatives of Ukraine and Russia. However, according to Axios's assessment, these contacts have not yet yielded significant progress.

Last week, the head of the Ukrainian President's Office, Kirill Budanov, said that negotiations between Ukraine and Russia mediated by the United States could resume in September.

CIA Director visited Moscow before Witkoff and Kushner

The trip by Trump's representatives will take place about ten days after CIA Director John Ratcliffe's visit to Moscow. According to Axios, he met with heads of Russian intelligence and security agencies.

The publication writes that one of Ratcliffe's tasks was to find out whether representatives of the Russian security leadership are able to persuade Putin to return to diplomacy in order to end the war. Now Witkoff and Kushner will continue contacts directly in a meeting with the Russian president.

Kyiv doubts Putin's readiness for an agreement

Despite the new US diplomatic initiative, Ukrainian officials, according to Axios, remain seriously skeptical about the intentions of the Russian leadership. Kyiv claims that available intelligence, on the contrary, indicates Russia's preparation for a new large-scale escalation of the war.

In addition, Russian troops have recently intensified missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv.

Deputy Head of the President's Office Pavlo Palisa told reporters on Friday that, according to information available to Ukraine, Putin has instructed the Russian military command to prepare several operational scenarios for an offensive in northern Ukraine. Among the directions considered by the Russian side, Palisa named the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions.

Against this backdrop, Moscow also did not agree to several proposals from the Trump administration to organize a trilateral meeting with the participation of the presidents of the United States, Ukraine and Russia that could give diplomatic negotiations a new impetus.

Zelensky confirmed preparation for the meeting

Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that meetings with Trump's representatives are being prepared. He stressed the importance of maintaining active US involvement in the process and said that the Ukrainian side is ready for substantive negotiations with American representatives.

Thus, within a single weekend, Witkoff and Kushner intend to successively hold talks with the leadership of both warring countries: first in Moscow, then in Kyiv. Axios has not yet disclosed the specific proposals that Trump's representatives plan to discuss with Putin and Zelensky.

Source: Axios