A 72-hour truce is under way as US envoy Witkoff holds ‘meaningful, substantive, important’ talks in Kyiv

US envoy Steve Witkoff described his talks in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team as “very meaningful, substantive, important,” saying the dialogue would continue for as long as necessary.

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We had a very meaningful, substantive, important discussion, and we are very encouraged and look forward to continuing this dialogue for as long as necessary.

“We had a very meaningful, substantive, important discussion, and we are very encouraged and look forward to continuing this dialogue for as long as necessary,” Witkoff said after the meeting. Sources told The Kyiv Independent that the first round of talks between the Ukrainian and American teams ended about three hours after it began. A US official described the atmosphere as positive.

The discussions took place during a 72-hour truce. US envoys Witkoff and Jared Kushner reached Kyiv by train after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow the previous day. Their visit marked the first trip to Ukraine by President Donald Trump’s envoys since the conflict began in 2022. Ukraine’s foreign intelligence chief, Rustem Umerov, welcomed them at the station before they met Zelenskyy.

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substantive plans

European security advisers from Britain, France and Germany were also expected to join another round of talks with Zelenskyy and the US envoys. The White House said the Moscow meeting had addressed “substantive plans” for peace in Ukraine, while the Kremlin called it “extremely frank.” Moscow said Putin stressed the need to address all the root causes of the conflict.

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extremely frank

The diplomatic exchanges unfolded alongside a sharp escalation in rhetoric. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described Germany’s accusations that Russia was responsible for drone activity at Leipzig airport, and Berlin’s diplomatic retaliation, as “the beginning of a real war.”

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the beginning of a real war