President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had “very meaningful” talks with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday after holding similar discussions a day before with Russia’s Vladimir Putin aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
Speaking with reporters following an initial round of talks with Zelenskyy on Sunday, Witkoff said the discussions had been “substantive” and “important.”
“We are very encouraged,” he added.
Kushner emphasized in separate comments that Trump was “very determined to see an end to this war.”
Neither gave details of the specifics of any proposal to end the conflict.
The pair arrived in Kyiv earlier Sunday by train following a flight from Moscow to the Polish border.
“Ukraine has always been and will remain constructive. We are interested in bringing the end of the war closer,” Zelenskyy said on social media ahead of the talks, adding that Ukraine’s “proposals are ready.”
Both Russia and Ukraine agreed to hold off on aerial attacks on each other’s capitals to enable the visits over the weekend, bringing a brief respite in the cities, though no broader ceasefire is in place.
A stream of past peace efforts have so far failed to deliver significant movement toward peace in a war that Trump once vowed to end on Day 1 of his presidency. Talks have been effectively paused in recent months due to the Iran war.
While there has been little recent movement on the front lines, the talks come ahead of what will likely be a difficult winter in Kyiv, which is facing a critical shortage of U.S.-made interceptor missiles able to repel Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.
Sunday’s visit to Kyiv is believed to be the first to be made by Witkoff and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, as part of the peace effort. Witkoff has visited Moscow several times, most recently holding talks with Putin at the Kremlin in January.
Witkoff on Saturday appeared to strike a particularly warm tone during the meeting with Putin. In video published by Russia’s state-owned news outlet RIA Novosti, he told the Russian leader that the delegation had been reflecting on how “when we retire, we’ll have all these incredible stories and incredible memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all.”
Putin did not publicly signal any movement from his previous steep demands, which seek major concessions from Ukraine. He praised Witkoff and Kushner in the video, telling them: “I would like to say that working with you is a comfortable experience for us, and we certainly place a high level of trust in you throughout this process.”
Following the meeting Sunday with Zelenskyy, Witkoff also offered praise to the Ukrainian leader, saying his hospitality was “unsurpassed.”
A White House official said “substantive plans for the next steps” in the effort to end the war were at the center of the talks.
In a statement, the official said those next steps would be announced in the coming weeks, with the U.S. delegates looking forward to “equally productive meetings” in Ukraine.
They added that officials from the National Security Council, the State Department and the Treasury Department joined the meeting on Saturday, which lasted more than three hours.
Putin aide Yury Ushakov told Russian state media on Sunday that the meeting, which included an “informal setting at the dining table,” was “substantive, constructive, extremely frank and trusting,” noting it was the eighth time the U.S. delegation has visited Russia and that Putin had extended his “best wishes” to Trump.
In a nightly address on Friday, Zelenskyy said Kyiv’s goal was to have the “most constructive, substantive visit and negotiations possible with the American side.”
“We need to look for real options for how to bring this war to an end,” he said, adding: “We’ll see what proposals Steve and Jared have, and what they are told about this in Moscow.”
Pope Leo XIV said in remarks following his weekly Sunday Angelus prayer that he hoped the talks would “bear concrete fruit and open space for diplomacy.”
“My heart goes out to the suffering people, who for years have lived in anguish and fear,” he said, renewing his “appeal to put an end to the violence, to stop the destruction and to open hearts to dialogue and peace.”
Ahead of the talks, Russia had ramped up its attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with relentless bombardments, exploiting Ukraine’s shortage of air defense systems.
A Russian drone on Friday hit one of the most important government buildings in Kyiv, the headquarters of Ukraine’s Security Service, known as the SBU, one of the agencies involved in the execution of deep-strike operations inside Russia.
In a social media post Saturday, Zelenskyy said Russia had launched overnight strikes on Kyiv and Boryspil international airports, linking the attack to the U.S. visit.
“Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the U.S. side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine,” he said.
He said Kyiv had “taken note of this Russian move” and would “adjust our operation accordingly regarding Russian airspace, which has become dangerous because of our drones and missiles in the sky.”
Speaking with reporters on Friday during an event in the Oval Office, Trump said Kushner and Witkoff had been doing a “great job” in their efforts on the peace process ahead of their visits to Moscow and Kyiv.
“We sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done,” he said. “And there may be a good chance that we’ll do it.”
