The diplomatic effort led by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to seek a peaceful settlement to the war in Ukraine seems to be restarting after a six-month pause due to Washington’s involvement in the conflict with Iran. According to information that the Kremlin has avoided confirming, the White House emissaries will travel this weekend first to Moscow, and then to Kyiv.
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Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are scheduled to arrive in the capitals of the two Slavic countries “on September 5 and 6,” a source told the Russian state agency Tass on Friday.
Shortly after Trump took office for his second presidential term in the U.S. in January 2025, he began mediating between Russians and Ukrainians to try to find a peaceful agreement. Witkoff, a New York real estate investor, became the U.S. president’s envoy to try to arrange a settlement to the war that Russia started against Ukraine in February 2022.
The last meeting of Putin with Witkoff and Kushner took place in January at the Kremlin
Witkoff traveled several times to Russia, where he was received by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Over time, Jared Kushner, businessman and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, joined him.
However, those contacts were abruptly interrupted when on February 28 of this year Israel and the U.S. bombed Iran and the conflict in the Middle East began, which is also not yet resolved. With Washington concerned about that important region of the world, the White House stopped paying attention to the Ukrainian dossier.
Witkoff and Kushner last traveled to Moscow in January, when they held a nighttime meeting with Putin at the Kremlin. And the last talks between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the United States took place in February, shortly before the United States and Israel started a war against Iran.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Witkoff and Kushner had informed him that they were going back to Moscow and would later also travel to Kyiv. “We expect to see the U.S. president’s emissaries here in Kyiv (…) in the coming days,” Zelensky said in his nightly message.
In Ukraine, it is considered an affront that Trump’s emissaries have repeatedly traveled to Moscow and never to Kyiv
The Ukrainian side has been complaining for months that Trump’s envoys had gone to Moscow to talk with Putin several times and had never visited Kyiv, which they consider an affront.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused on Friday to satisfy journalists’ curiosity. “I would not venture to announce anything. But when these contacts take place, we will inform you,” said Putin’s press chief.
President Trump himself announced a few weeks ago that his men’s long-awaited visit to Ukraine was coming. But, as in most statements, he avoided giving dates and limited himself to saying it would happen “in the coming days.”
Russia is willing to use “a peaceful solution” to “achieve our goals,” says Peskov
According to some media, that “coming day” was going to be August 24, Independence Day in Ukraine. But in the end, it did not materialize.
Already in June, Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s advisor for international affairs, said that the leaders of the U.S. and Russia had agreed on the visit of Trump’s two representatives, but also for “the near future.”
Putin stated on Thursday in Vladivostok, during his speech at the Eastern Economic Forum, that it is still possible to negotiate peacefully to end the war. He thanked the support of the U.S. and China for a dialogued end to the conflict and assured that Russia and Ukraine continue to maintain contacts through intelligence services.
Peskov insisted on Friday that Russia remains willing to use “a peaceful solution to achieve our goals.” And regarding the United States, he assured that they maintain “goodwill and their willingness to continue their mediation efforts.”
