The emissaries sent by Donald Trump to Moscow, then to kyiv, on Sunday September 6 presented new, “more effective” proposals aimed at ending the war with Russia, according to the Ukrainian presidency.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, said he feared seeing the war continue this winter, due to the lack of willingness of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to negotiate directly with him.
American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the American president’s son-in-law, presented new, “more effective” proposals to kyiv aimed at ending the war with Russia, a senior official from the Ukrainian presidency told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday evening.
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The two men left kyiv by train on Sunday evening, the Ukrainian railway company announced, without specifying their destination. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived from Poland on Sunday, after meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday evening.
“Very meaningful” discussions, according to Steve Witkoff
Volodymyr Zelensky held initial talks on Sunday with Donald Trump’s envoys, after which he did not seem optimistic.
“We are counting on the support of our European partners if the war continues into the winter, which seems to be the case for the moment,” he said during a press conference on Sunday evening, after his discussions.
Also to be continuedLive: War will last this winter, says Zelensky after talks with Kushner and Witkoff in kyiv
For his part, Steve Witkoff, who had earlier welcomed “very significant” discussions, estimated that Moscow and kyiv should make compromises to find a way out of the war that has pitted them against each other since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“It will be necessary for both parties to compromise and reduce differences, and we believe we have the necessary elements to achieve this,” he said. “It’s very difficult, but we are determined.”
However, the Ukrainian president maintained that the territorial question – central to the conflict – could only be resolved during meetings between heads of state.
“I want to stick to my position which is that such complex issues can only be resolved at the level of leaders,” declared Volodymyr Zelensky, who has long called on Vladimir Putin to negotiate directly, to which the latter refuses.
Blockage around the territorial question
Another session of talks involving the two American envoys, the Ukrainian delegation and European advisors, respectively the German Günter Sautter, the British Jonathan Powell and the French Emmanuel Bonne, also took place.
This is the first visit to Ukraine by Steve Witkoff, a businessman close to Donald Trump, and Jared Kushner since the start of their mediation.
Since his return to the White House at the beginning of 2025, Donald Trump has initiated several rounds of discussions to find a solution to this war, the deadliest in Europe since the Second World War. But these attempts have so far led to no tangible progress.
The negotiations are mainly blocked on the territorial question, with Moscow demanding that the Ukrainian army withdraw entirely from the eastern region of Donetsk, which kyiv categorically refuses.
Donald Trump did not specify whether the proposal transmitted by his emissaries involved a cession of territories from Ukraine, as he had previously suggested.
“We hope that these negotiations will resolve something. As a Ukrainian, I want this to take place with the preservation of our territories,” Yulia, 41, told AFP, met in kyiv. She says she comes from territories under Russian occupation and works as a cleaner.
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Yaroslav, 29, another resident of kyiv who refused to give his last name, was skeptical: “There have already been so many negotiations” without peace coming, he stressed to AFP.
Continued hostilities outside the Ukrainian capital
On the occasion of these new talks, Vladimir Putin decreed a cessation of strikes on kyiv for three days, from Saturday until Monday inclusive. Volodymyr Zelensky announced a halt to attacks targeting Moscow during the same period.
But elsewhere in Ukraine and Russia, hostilities continue.
Also readWar in Ukraine: Russian drones track civilians, “human safaris” multiply
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, Moscow attacked Ukraine with 108 drones and missiles, the Ukrainian air force reported, claiming to have shot down most of them and specifying that 11 sites had nevertheless been hit by these bombings.
For its part, the Russian army claimed to have neutralized 258 Ukrainian drones launched last night. A fire hit a company in the town of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow, according to the governor, with Russian media outlet ASTRA saying it was a refinery.
With AFP
