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Russian state news agency TASS reported that the two U.S. negotiators will visit Russia and Ukraine over the weekend as part of renewed efforts to broker a peace agreement. According to Reuters, the envoys last traveled to Moscow in January for four hours of late-night talks with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that discussions regarding the Ukraine portion of the trip were ongoing with September 6 cited as one possible date. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated in his Thursday address that the visits were expected in the coming days.
This trip would mark the first time Witkoff and Kushner travel to Kyiv since President Trump returned to office, Axios reported. The two met with Trump at the White House on Thursday to prepare for the journey, the outlet added. Zelensky confirmed on X that he anticipates the Kyiv meeting soon and described the engagement as very important for sustained American involvement in the process.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to confirm the TASS report when asked by reporters on September 4. Peskov stated that officials would inform the media when such contacts take place, according to multiple accounts including Reuters and The Jerusalem Post. A source cited by Reuters said the Russians do not want the envoys to visit Kyiv and are attempting to alter the plan.
Zelensky told his nightly audience on Thursday that Ukraine’s negotiating team remains in near-constant contact with the U.S. side while preparing for substantive high-level talks. “They confirmed they will have a meeting in Moscow and another one in Kyiv. We expect the latter to take place in the coming days,” Zelensky said. He added that it is important America remains actively engaged in the diplomatic effort.
A vast gulf persists between the two sides on ending the four-and-a-half-year conflict, which Reuters described as the deadliest in Europe since World War Two. Putin has repeatedly demanded that Ukraine cede the entirety of four regions claimed by Moscow and abandon its NATO membership aspirations, according to the news agency. Ukraine rejects those conditions, viewing any territorial surrender as capitulation after years of defense at enormous human and material cost.
The latest diplomatic activity follows a meeting last month in which CIA Director John Ratcliffe engaged with heads of Russian intelligence and security services in Moscow, Axios reported. That session focused on whether Russian officials could persuade Putin toward diplomacy. The previous round of U.S.-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine occurred in February, shortly before the United States and Israel launched military action against Iran, several outlets noted.
Chicago wheat futures dropped more than 2 percent after Putin commented on the possibility of a peace deal earlier in the week, according to Reuters. The Russian leader told an audience in Vladivostok on September 3 that he saw a chance for an agreement while acknowledging Ukrainian aviation warnings had complicated matters. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha separately told reporters he observed a new dynamic in the peace efforts with increased political and diplomatic engagement.
