Witkoff and Kushner set to visit Moscow then Kyiv on Sunday

U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow and Kyiv in the coming days in an apparent attempt to restart stalled negotiations to end the Ukraine war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “We discussed today that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow and then Kyiv on Sunday,” the Ukrainian president wrote. No details about the substance of the meetings have been released, but a U.S. official told CNN Friday that Witkoff and Kushner intend to press for a diplomatic solution to end the conflict. Russian state news agency TASS reported that Witkoff and Kushner “intend to travel to Moscow and Kyiv on September 5-6.” The men have been key U.S. mediators in the stalled Ukraine peace talks. Witkoff made several trips to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2025 and early 2026 and met with Zelenskyy in the U.S., Germany and France. This will be their first trip to Kyiv. After Trump returned to office in early 2025, the U.S. launched an intensive push for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal focused on territorial compromises, security guarantees for Ukraine and postwar reconstruction. Washington initially put heavy pressure on Kyiv to accept the proposals, but by early 2026, the talks broke down. In recent weeks, Washington has renewed its efforts to engage with Moscow, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe visiting the Russian capital in late August. Ratcliffe used the trip to press Russia to reduce its military and economic support to Iran and urge it not to escalate conflict with America’s NATO allies.