US special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday, emerging from the talks with cautious optimism that efforts to advance a peace process could gain momentum.
The meeting followed a roughly three-hour discussion in Moscow on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as both Ukraine and Russia prepare for what is expected to be another punishing winter in the war.
“We came here, and I think we really feel good about what has happened in the conversations in Moscow and now the conversations here,” Witkoff said in Ukraine while standing alongside Zelensky.
Sunday’s visit marked the first official trip to Ukraine for Witkoff and Kushner in their current diplomatic roles. Witkoff has traveled to Moscow eight times over the past 18 months for meetings with Russian officials.
At the same time, both men have been involved in diplomatic efforts tied to multiple conflicts in the Middle East.
Kushner also briefly addressed the challenges facing attempts to broker peace between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza.
“We’re working through some political issues in Israel. I think we agree with them on the end state,” Kushner said. “They just have a crazy election. And that makes them a little irrational in certain regards. But we’re very determined, and we’re working through these things.
“By the way, we’re now starting to understand the scope of the militarization of Gaza. It is beyond your comprehension. And so demilitarization is not going to be easy,” he warned.
Ahead of Witkoff’s and Kushner’s trek to Ukraine, the Kremlin carried out strikes on the Kyiv and Boryspil international airports, according to Zelensky. The two US special envoys took a train to Kyiv.
Putin and Zelensky agreed to a three-day cease-fire starting at midnight Saturday to mark the special envoys’ trip to Ukraine.
“What President Trump’s been very focused on is how do we create a framework that could actually build lead to a durable peace,” Kushner said.
“One thing Steve and I really thought would be productive is to go back to the trilateral format, which we were able to do about six months ago, and we’ve spoken with both parties,” Trump’s son-in-law added. “And so hopefully we’ll have progress on that very soon.”
No one publicly disclosed specific details of what a peace plan would look like. Prior proposals ran into headwinds over key sticking points such as control of the Donbas region. Since the war started in 2022, Russia has been unable to take full control of the Donbas by force.
Putin has demanded full control, but Zelensky has noted that Ukraine’s constitution precludes the Ukrainian president from surrendering territory. The Ukrainians also fear that surrendering territory that Russia has been unable to fully capture will make them militarily vulnerable if Moscow violates any deal and decides to pursue more land.
“I think President Trump has a track record of doing impossible things,” Kushner said when asked about prior peace efforts that imploded. “It doesn’t matter how much he’ll get criticized by people in the press or different critics. He wants to go after it.”
The development came as US Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned that fallout from the war has led to high diesel prices.
“Diesel’s been impacted by a lot of factors, but the single biggest one there has been the Ukrainian destruction of Russian refineries,” Wright told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“Russia was a meaningful exporter of diesel throughout the last several decades. Today, they have banned any exports of diesel.”
