Witkoff and Kushner set for Moscow and Kyiv visits with US 'proposal to end the war'
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on the evening of 4 September that US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow in the coming days and Kyiv on Sunday, 6 September, carrying what President Donald Trump described as 'a proposal to end the war.' Zelensky said Ukraine will pause air strikes against Russia for the duration of the trip and called on Russia to reciprocate, while Trump used the announcement to claim progress on a peace deal and to argue that Putin does not intend to attack NATO territory.
Key points
- Zelensky confirmed in his 4 September evening address that Witkoff and Kushner will travel to Moscow and then to Kyiv on Sunday, 6 September.
- Trump told reporters at the White House the same day that his envoys are bringing 'a proposal to end the war.'
- Zelensky pledged that Ukraine will not carry out air strikes on Russia for the duration of the visit and will ensure the 'normal functioning of Russian airspace' so the US negotiators can arrive safely.
- Zelensky called on Russia to mirror Ukraine's restraint and refrain from air strikes during the negotiations and related logistics.
- The Kyiv leg would be the envoys' first visit to Ukraine since Trump returned to the White House; Witkoff has met Putin five times in 2025 and twice jointly with Kushner, most recently in January 2026.
- The trip comes after a 25 August unannounced visit to Moscow by CIA Director Ratcliffe and weeks of wavering over whether the Kyiv leg would go ahead at all.
- The New York Times reported that Washington conditioned the visit on Ukraine halting drone strikes on Moscow and Russian energy sites and on Russia halting missile strikes on Kyiv.
Why it matters
The visit puts a concrete US-brokered negotiation track back on the table after months in which Trump's envoys travelled only to Moscow. Ukraine has bought into the trip by suspending strikes against Russia, raising the diplomatic cost if Moscow fails to reciprocate. The mission also comes against the backdrop of parallel US–Russia contacts, including an unannounced CIA trip to Moscow in late August, signalling a coordinated push across multiple channels.
What happened
In his evening address on Friday, 4 September, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would travel to Moscow in the coming days and then to Kyiv on Sunday, 6 September, saying Ukraine had received the details from the US president's team. Zelensky said Ukraine would not carry out air strikes on Russia for the duration of the visit and would ensure the 'normal functioning of Russian airspace' so the American negotiators could arrive safely; he called on Russia to reciprocate with silence of its own. The same day, President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that the envoys were carrying 'a proposal to end the war' and called them 'two great negotiators,' while arguing that Vladimir Putin does not intend to attack NATO territory and that personal hostility between Zelensky and Putin is the main obstacle to peace. The trip, the envoys' first to Ukraine since Trump returned to the White House, follows a 25 August unannounced Moscow visit by CIA Director Ratcliffe and weeks of reported wavering over the Kyiv leg.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Kyiv framed the visit as overdue engagement. Zelensky announced it in his evening address with an explicit reciprocal-silence pledge and convened his broader US-facing diplomatic team in advance, having also spoken to Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to coordinate. Ukraine first invited the envoys back in April and has seen earlier Kyiv legs postponed; the 24 August plan developed in Kyiv — a ceasefire, mutual troop withdrawal from the line of contact and a buffer zone — is the substantive Ukrainian position they are coming to hear. Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha used a 4 September Russian drone strike on the SBU building in central Kyiv to call on partners to ratchet up pressure on Russia.
How international sources describe it
Western reporting centred on Trump's White House announcement that the envoys carry 'a proposal to end the war,' paired with his broader commentary on having 'ended eight wars' without a Nobel Peace Prize, his claim that Putin has no plans to attack NATO territory, and his explanation that the impasse comes down to Zelensky and Putin 'hating each other.' Coverage highlighted the parallel-track nature of US–Russia contacts, with CIA Director Ratcliffe's late-August Moscow trip and New York Times reporting that Washington explicitly conditioned the visit on mutual air restraint — Ukraine halting drone strikes on Moscow and Russian energy infrastructure, Russia halting missile strikes on Kyiv — presenting the trip as a negotiated de-escalation window and the first Kyiv leg under Trump's current presidency.
Where reporting differs
Sources disagree on whether the Kyiv leg will actually happen: Zelensky publicly confirmed the visit, but the Kyiv Independent, citing its sources, and Financial Times correspondent Christopher Miller reported that Witkoff and Kushner were wavering and discussing alternative plans because of Russian intimidation and Witkoff's safety concerns. Sources also differ on the scope of the silence pledge: Zelensky framed it as a reciprocal Ukrainian and Russian pause on air strikes during the talks, while one source-titled report described an order for Ukrainian defence units to observe a silence regime along the entire line of contact from 00:00 on 5 September to 23:59 on 8 September, framing it as a frontline ceasefire order rather than only an air-strike pledge. Reporting on prior engagements is also inconsistent, with some accounts saying the envoys had never visited Ukraine during Trump's current presidency and others describing the upcoming trip as the first Kyiv leg since Trump returned to the White House.
Background
Witkoff is Trump's special envoy; Kushner is US special envoy for peace affairs and the US president's son-in-law. Witkoff has met Vladimir Putin five times in Russia in 2025 and twice jointly with Kushner, most recently in January 2026, while the envoys had not previously visited Ukraine during Trump's current presidency. CIA Director Ratcliffe made an unannounced visit to Moscow on 25 August, the first such visit in five years, against the backdrop of stalled peace talks; New York Times sources say US–Russian intelligence channels operate in parallel to those run by Witkoff and Kushner. Ukraine first invited the envoys to Kyiv in April; a planned trip for Independence Day on 24 August was postponed after intensified Russian strikes on the capital. On 1 September Zelensky announced a blockade of Russian airspace in response to those strikes while signalling that Ukraine would still clear Russian skies of drones for defined intervals to enable negotiations. The New York Times reported that Washington conditioned the trip on Ukraine halting drone strikes on Moscow and Russian energy infrastructure and on Russia halting missile strikes on Kyiv during the visit.