Witkoff and Kushner meet Putin in Moscow, then travel to Kyiv with Trump peace proposal
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow on September 5 carrying a Trump administration proposal to end the Russia–Ukraine war, met with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin for roughly three hours, and were scheduled to travel to Kyiv the next day for their first visit to the Ukrainian capital since the start of the full-scale invasion and during Trump's presidency. President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke by phone with the envoys from Moscow and announced Ukraine would refrain from air strikes on Moscow from Saturday through Monday if Russia refrained from strikes on Kyiv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin ordered a three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv starting around midnight between September 5 and 6, while Russian strikes on other Ukrainian regions continued. Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev greeted the envoys at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport and called the visit an "important peace mission."
Key points
- Witkoff and Kushner arrived in Moscow on Saturday, September 5, and met Putin at the Kremlin for about three hours.
- The Sunday, September 6 trip to Kyiv is the envoys' first visit to the Ukrainian capital since the start of the full-scale invasion and during Trump's presidency.
- Trump said the envoys were carrying a proposal to end the war.
- After a phone call with Zelensky, Ukraine announced it would refrain from air strikes on Moscow from Saturday through Monday if Russia refrained from strikes on Kyiv.
- Peskov said Putin ordered a three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv starting around midnight between September 5 and 6; Russian strikes on other Ukrainian regions continued.
- Overnight on September 4–5, Russia struck Kyiv and Boryspil airports; Zelensky called the strikes "demonstrative" and linked them to preparations for the U.S. delegation's arrival.
- The U.S. delegation included a Treasury sanctions official; the Kremlin meeting produced no breakthrough, with Putin reiterating demands including full Russian control of the Donbas.
Why it matters
The visit is the first by Trump's envoys to Kyiv during his current term, opening a direct U.S. channel with the Ukrainian leadership that Zelensky had publicly said was overdue. A reciprocal three-day halt to air strikes on Moscow and Kyiv was announced, but Russia kept striking other Ukrainian regions and the Kremlin meeting produced no breakthrough. Putin reiterated maximalist demands, including full Russian control of the Donbas and limits on Ukraine's armed forces, while the U.S. delegation included a Treasury sanctions official, linking the diplomacy to economic pressure on Russia.
What happened
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Saturday, September 5, were greeted at Vnukovo Airport by Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev, and met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin for approximately three hours. The Kremlin said the talks were substantive and described the visit as an "important peace mission"; Putin told the envoys the situation was "not simple" and that Russia had "never agreed with Ukraine on a broader ceasefire." Trump said the envoys were carrying a proposal to end the war. While in Moscow, Witkoff and Kushner spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Following the call, Zelensky announced Ukraine would refrain from air strikes on Moscow from the evening of Saturday through Sunday and Monday, and said Ukraine expected Russia to reciprocate on Kyiv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had ordered a three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv starting around midnight between September 5 and 6. The envoys were scheduled to travel to Kyiv on Sunday, September 6, for their first visit to the Ukrainian capital since the start of the full-scale invasion and during Trump's presidency. Zelensky approved the diplomatic program for the Kyiv meetings and said Ukraine would ensure the normal functioning of Russian airspace so the U.S. negotiators could arrive safely. Russian strikes continued elsewhere in Ukraine on September 5, including overnight strikes Zelensky called "demonstrative" on the airports in Kyiv and Boryspil, a drone strike on the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) headquarters in Kyiv that Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said injured at least nine people, and attacks in the Dnipro region and elsewhere that Zelensky said killed civilians. Ukraine's General Staff said combat operations on the frontline continued in full because a ceasefire could not be unilateral. Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Budanov confirmed that Ukraine had conveyed a ceasefire proposal directly to Putin, but received no response.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Ukrainian coverage centered Zelensky's call with the envoys, his unilateral offer to hold off on strikes on Moscow, his expectation of Russian reciprocity, and his approval of the Kyiv program. It stressed what it called Russian "demonstrative" strikes on the Kyiv and Boryspil airports, the drone strike on the SBU headquarters, and continuing Russian attacks in other Ukrainian regions on September 5, portraying Russia as undermining the spirit of the announcement even as it suspended strikes on the capital. Ukrainian reporting also noted Kyiv's earlier proposal for a 96-hour ceasefire from September 5 to 8, which the Kremlin initially appeared to ignore, and quoted the General Staff saying frontline combat continued because a ceasefire cannot be one-sided. The first trip by Witkoff and Kushner to Kyiv, after multiple Moscow-only visits that Zelensky had publicly criticized as "disrespectful," was framed as overdue. Ukrainian sources also flagged the inclusion of a U.S. Treasury sanctions official in the delegation and U.S. pressure on Kyiv to halt drone strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, casting some of the U.S. requests as asymmetric.
How international sources describe it
International coverage led with the diplomatic choreography: Witkoff and Kushner in Moscow meeting Putin at the Kremlin, then traveling to Kyiv for the first time, with Trump framing the trip as a peace-proposal mission. It quoted Putin's "not simple" characterization of the situation and Dmitriev's "important peace mission" language to convey cautious engagement. It highlighted the Kremlin's three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv alongside Putin's insistence on addressing the "root causes" of the war and on maximalist territorial demands, and cited Bloomberg-sourced Kremlin expectations described as "extremely low" and CNN assessments that real diplomatic progress was unlikely. Parallel events were noted, including Germany's formal accusation that Russia attempted an explosive drone attack on Leipzig airport and continuing Russian strikes on Ukrainian regions beyond the two capitals.
Where reporting differs
Sources differ on when Putin's three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv begins: some cite midnight on September 5, others midnight between September 5 and 6, and the window is variously described as 5–8 September or starting on September 6. Ukrainian reporting and the General Staff described the 'silence regime' along the line of contact from September 5 to 8 as a unilateral Ukrainian initiative, but Zelensky's Office later disputed the existence of the order. Casualty figures from the night of September 4–5 also differ across reports: one set mentions four killed and five injured in the Dnipro region, while another cites two killed in the Bucha district with 28 facilities damaged and three killed in Chuhuiv.
Background
Ukraine's airspace has been closed since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Witkoff and Kushner had previously visited Moscow multiple times without going to Kyiv, which Zelensky had publicly criticized as disrespectful. CIA Director John Ratcliffe had visited Moscow just over a week earlier in a meeting Trump described as "semi-routine." Ukraine had proposed a 96-hour ceasefire from September 5 to 8, which the Kremlin initially appeared to ignore before Putin agreed to a capitals-only three-day truce.