US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday, Sept. 6, marking their first visit to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The US delegation arrived by train at Kyiv’s central railway station for direct negotiations with Ukraine’s leadership.
A senior Ukrainian delegation met the envoys upon arrival, including Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Budanov, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Sergiy Kyslytsya, Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU) Rustem Umerov, and “Servant of the People” parliamentary faction leader Davyd Arakhamia.
“Welcome to Kyiv, representatives of the President of the United States Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner,” Umerov wrote in a statement. “We continue close coordination on further steps to end the war.”
Strategy session and preceding Kremlin talks
The arrival of the US envoys follows a preparatory strategy meeting convened by Zelensky earlier Sunday with members of Ukraine’s negotiating delegation to finalize Kyiv’s diplomatic positions.
The Kyiv talks follow a three-hour-and-10-minute meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the US delegation at the Kremlin on Saturday evening, Sept. 5.
Following those discussions, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov claimed that Witkoff and Kushner agreed to factor Putin’s battlefield assessments into their dialogue in Kyiv.
Russian officials characterized the Moscow session – which also included an informal working dinner – as “meaningful,” “frank,” and conducted in an atmosphere of mutual trust, noting that potential large-scale US-Russian commercial projects were raised alongside conflict settlement concepts.
The broader Washington delegation visiting the region included officials from the National Security Council, the State Department, and the Treasury Department.
Gene Lange, acting head of the US Treasury’s sanctions division, traveled to Moscow and held a preparatory session with Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special representative for economic cooperation.
While Lange did not attend the direct session with Putin, his presence underscored that sanctions policy formed part of the dialogue, despite recent assertions by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ruling out economic concessions without an end to the war.
At the onset of the Moscow talks, Putin confirmed that Russian forces had paused aerial strikes on Kyiv starting at midnight on Sept. 5, but rejected Ukraine’s proposal for a wider three-day frontline ceasefire.
In reciprocal coordination to safeguard the diplomatic process, Zelensky previously pledged that Ukrainian forces would refrain from striking Moscow through Monday as the US envoys conduct their meetings.