US envoys Witkoff and Kushner arrive in Kyiv for first visit

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have reached Kyiv for the first time after holding nearly three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow the previous day. The US envoys were welcomed at the city's railway station by Kyrylo Budanov, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to video published by the Unian news agency.

A meeting with Zelenskyy was planned. “We are ready for the conversation. Ukraine has been and will always be constructive,” the president wrote on social media. “We are interested in bringing an end to the war closer.” He said Ukraine needed security guarantees and a dignified postwar order.

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

The Kyiv visit follows repeated trips to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner since 2025. They had not previously visited Kyiv for their mediation efforts, a gap that had angered Zelenskyy. In April, he criticized the decision to travel to Moscow without coming to Kyiv, calling it disrespectful.

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

The latest Moscow meetings appeared to underscore the different reactions surrounding the mission. Putin said Witkoff and Kushner had gained the Russian side's trust and that cooperation with them was comfortable. Witkoff described his meetings with Putin as among the most memorable of his life. Despite the contacts, expectations in both Kyiv and Moscow for the new US mediation effort remained low.

The negotiators returned to European Union territory after the Moscow talks, landing in Rzeszow in eastern Poland before taking the train to Kyiv, as other foreign officials have done. The New York Times reported, citing officials familiar with the diplomatic effort, that the trip had taken weeks to arrange. The United States reportedly sought temporary pauses in Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow and Russian energy infrastructure while the envoys were in Russia, while Russian forces were expected to halt missile attacks on Kyiv. Putin ordered a three-day ceasefire for the Ukrainian capital, and Zelenskyy agreed to suspend attacks on Moscow through Monday.

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For us, cooperation with them is comfortable.