Ukraine war: US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrive in Kyiv for the first time

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have arrived in Kyiv for the first time on their US mediation mission, travelling there after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The two envoys were welcomed at the city’s railway station by Kyrylo Budanov, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to video shown by the Ukrainian news agency Unian. Talks between Zelenskyy and the US representatives then began. A short video showed Zelenskyy greeting them in the square outside Kyiv’s medieval Saint Sophia Cathedral.

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We are ready for the conversation. Ukraine has been and will always be constructive.

Witkoff, the US special envoy, and Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, spent almost three hours with Putin the previous day. They discussed possible ways to end the war, which has continued for four and a half years. Russia has waged what the article describes as a destructive war of aggression against neighbouring Ukraine since 2022.

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We are interested in bringing an end to the war closer.

The envoys have visited Moscow several times since 2025, but had never travelled to Kyiv for their mediation efforts. That had angered Zelenskyy. In April, he criticised the decision to visit Moscow without coming to Ukraine, calling it disrespectful.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready for talks and interested in bringing the war to an end. He said the country needed security guarantees and a dignified postwar order. Expectations in both Kyiv and Moscow remain low. Previous US-backed discussions between Russia and Ukraine in the United Arab Emirates and Geneva produced no breakthrough, and negotiations recently stalled. Trump said the envoys had been sent to see whether progress was possible and again expressed optimism, while the article said the United States had also been distracted by its own war in Iran.

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We sent them there to see whether we can achieve something.