US President Donald Trump confirmed that his special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are traveling to Ukraine and Russia with a proposal aimed at ending the war.
During a press conference at the White House on Friday, Sept. 4, Trump also attributed the stalled diplomacy to personal animosity between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“See, I said that the last wars, most of them, in my opinion, should have been more difficult than the war between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump said.
“There is a problem of personalities in the war between Russia and Ukraine,” he continued. “They [Zelensky and Putin] really hate each other.”
Personal animosity as key obstacle
Earlier on Friday, Zelensky revealed that his team had received details directly from the US presidential office regarding the envoys’ itinerary and said that the meeting was set for Sunday in Kyiv – after the envoys’ first visit Moscow on that same weekend.
“I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators,” Trump said in his latest address, adding that they “are bringing a proposal to end the war to Moscow.”
“We have an idea of peace,” he continued, elaborating further on the “serious hatred” that has resulted in stalled diplomacy, while also revisiting his record on international conflict resolution.
“I ended eight wars; I get no credit for it,” Trump said. “Did I get the Nobel Prize? No, although the person who got it was nice enough that she gave it to me.”
Trump also claimed that Russia and Ukraine together lost 32,000 people last week, though the figure has not been independently verified.
Zelensky said Ukraine is preparing for the visit
Zelensky said that Ukraine was preparing for the visit by also ensuring the normal functioning of Russian airspace, mirroring arrangements made during previous diplomatic visits so “that the negotiators can arrive safely.”
His remarks came as Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko previously claimed that a Russian drone had struck an aircraft at Zhulyany Airport, officially known as Kyiv International Airport.
Though no official confirmation has been made about the strike, Honcharenko speculated that it may have been intended as a signal from Putin that he did not want to negotiate with Kyiv and Washington.
According to The Moscow Times citing a source from Reuters, Moscow was actively working to prevent the visit from taking place. “The Russians don’t want them to visit Kyiv and are trying to make them change the plan,” the source said.
Reportedly, the envoys had planned to fly directly into Kyiv despite the capital’s airspace remaining closed. Those plans are now in doubt after Russia declined to commit to pausing its strikes on Ukraine during the visit.
Deep divide despite renewed efforts at diplomacy
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated last week that peace negotiations remain on “a deep pause.”
According to Bloomberg’s Kremlin-linked sources around the same time, Moscow had already concluded that peace negotiations had “reached a dead end” and now sees few alternatives to further escalation.
As per the same report, Russian authorities are reportedly hoping that Kushner’s and Witkoff’s visit could bring new proposals, though expectations for a diplomatic breakthrough during the visit remain low.
Putin signaled a shift in tone on Wednesday, Sept. 2, saying prospects still existed for Russia and Ukraine to reach an agreement.
Kremlin has repeatedly insisted that Ukraine cede the entire eastern Donbas region, including areas still under Ukrainian control, as a condition for ending the war – an idea Kyiv continues to reject.