U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday in their first official visit to Ukraine, more than 4½ years after Russia's full-scale invasion began. The trip follows a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday that produced no major breakthrough.
The Trump administration's push to end the war has lost momentum over the past six months as Washington's attention shifted to the Iran war, according to Fortune's reporting.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his government is ready for a 'constructive' discussion with the American emissaries. 'We are interested in bringing the end of the war closer. Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A just and sustainable postwar peace is needed. Our proposals are prepared,' Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
The envoys arrived by train and were welcomed by senior Ukrainian officials before a ceremony with Zelenskyy in St. Sophia Square. Representatives from France, Germany and the United Kingdom were also present, according to Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov.
Saturday's closed-door meeting in Moscow lasted more than three hours. Putin's foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, called the talks 'constructive, frank and useful' but did not disclose specific outcomes. He said 'economic issues and potentially large, mutually beneficial joint projects for Russia and America were discussed in considerable detail.' Witkoff and Kushner's last known visit to Moscow was in January, when they also held talks with Putin at the Kremlin.
Despite an agreement to pause strikes on each other's capitals during the talks, both sides traded fire overnight. Russian attacks across multiple Ukrainian regions killed one person and wounded at least 10 others, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said. In Zaporizhzhia, a drone strike killed a 74-year-old man and wounded three people; a drone in the Khmelnytskyi region wounded seven after damaging an apartment building.
Ukraine's air force said it intercepted 82 of 108 Russian drones overnight, along with six missiles, across a 775-mile front line where troops have struggled to advance. Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 258 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions, Crimea, and the Black and Azov Seas. In Belgorod, a Ukrainian drone strike on a vehicle killed a man and seriously wounded a woman, local authorities said.
In Kyiv, dozens gathered for a daily 9 a.m. moment of silence honoring fallen soldiers. Nataliia Lipei, 67, whose son was killed in December 2022, said she hopes the talks 'will definitely produce results, because there has been so much bloodshed.' Oleksandr Pastukhov, 27, was skeptical, recalling a prior three-day ceasefire that 'ended after just a couple of hours.'
The numbers come first: more than 82 intercepted drones on one side and 258 on the other in a single night — a battlefield tempo that has not slowed despite four rounds of high-level diplomacy since January. That is the backdrop against which Moscow's talk of 'mutually beneficial' commercial projects with Washington should be read.
Power leaves a paper trail, and so far it shows talks measured in hours producing no signed guarantees, no ceasefire and no market-moving certainty for either side's economy. Until Moscow and Kyiv commit to enforceable terms, the war's daily toll — in lives and in the resources both governments still pour into it — remains the only figure investors and taxpayers alike can bank on.
