Trump envoys seek peace, but Zelenskyy says the war will continue into next year

Donald Trump’s peace envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff went from Moscow to Kyiv, but the diplomatic effort appears no closer to closing the gap between Russia and Ukraine. After meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Witkoff described the first round of talks as substantive and hopeful.

Behind closed doors, however, the discussions are portrayed as a tense diplomatic chess game. The Trump administration wants to bring about a ceasefire before winter arrives, while the article says the positions of the parties are farther apart than ever.

Zelenskyy made the outlook still more difficult by stating that the war would continue into next year. The report also says Russian President Vladimir Putin has “pulled the handbrake,” leaving the American negotiators to return empty-handed.

The talks followed the envoys’ Saturday visit to Moscow and their subsequent meeting in Kyiv. The article presents the sequence as an effort to pursue peace against a backdrop of hardened positions and limited diplomatic progress.