06 September 2026 | 13:07

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Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have arrived in Ukraine for their first visit to the country since the start of the president’s second term, part of a renewed U.S. effort to revive negotiations aimed at ending the war with Russia, the Kyiv Independent reports, citing informed sources.

The mission follows the more-than-three-hour meeting the two envoys held in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We are ready for talks. Ukraine has always been and will continue to be constructive,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after convening the negotiating team this morning ahead of the meeting.

“We want to move closer to ending the war. Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. A dignified post-war peace is needed. Our proposals are ready,” Zelensky added on X. “It is important to work in a coordinated, concrete and realistic way.”

Axios: US sanctions official in Moscow with Witkoff and Kushner

Gene Lange, acting sanctions official at the U.S. Treasury Department, accompanied Trump’s envoys on their mission to Moscow. According to Axios, his presence indicates that U.S. sanctions on Russia—and the possibility of easing them as part of an agreement on Ukraine—have entered discussions between Washington and Moscow.

Lange attended a preparatory meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, an envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but did not take part in the subsequent roughly three-hour Kremlin meeting between Putin, Witkoff and Kushner. His involvement in the mission follows Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s statement last week that the United States will not grant any sanctions relief to Russia until Moscow ends the war in Ukraine.

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