“The war will continue”: U.S. peace efforts fail to produce agreement after Witkoff and Kushner’s first visit to Kyiv

The first Kyiv visit by Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner produced no apparent breakthrough in Washington’s renewed effort to end the Russia-Ukraine war. After meeting the two Americans, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told journalists that he expected the fighting to continue through the winter.

The talks followed a more than three-hour meeting between Witkoff, Kushner and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Both sides described that discussion as “substantial,” but the Kyiv meeting did not appear to yield a major advance. Zelenskyy and the envoys discussed possible future trilateral meetings in two formats: the United States, Ukraine and Europe, and the United States, Ukraine and Russia. They gave no dates or locations.

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substantial

Zelenskyy said the discussions focused on support for the coming winter, security guarantees, economic guarantees and the delivery of Patriot air-defense systems to Ukraine. He had earlier said Ukraine needed strong security guarantees and a “dignified” postwar peace, adding that Kyiv’s proposals were ready.

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meaningful

Ukraine is preparing for another wave of Russian attacks on its energy network during the winter. The source says Moscow’s air campaign last winter destroyed 9 gigawatts of Ukraine’s generating capacity. After about three hours of bilateral U.S.-Ukrainian talks, national security advisers from Britain, France and Germany joined the negotiations.

Witkoff called the discussions “substantial” and “meaningful” and said the envoys were encouraged by the progress so far. Kushner conveyed Trump’s personal greetings and stressed the importance of building a durable, long-term peace that would allow Ukraine to reach its full potential as a nation. Zelenskyy thanked the American envoys and European officials, saying the war must end in a way that prevents Russia from launching another aggression. “We are all on the same side,” he said. “We all want the war to end.”

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We are all on the same side. We all want the war to end.