US envoys Witkoff, Kushner arrive in Moscow for talks on peace in Ukraine

MOSCOW - US special representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Sept 5 for talks on ending the war in Ukraine, with the warring sides offering to curtail attacks during the discussions.

Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency that President Vladimir Putin would meet Witkoff and Kushner in the Kremlin later on Sept 5. The US envoys are then expected to visit Kyiv the following day.

US President Donald Trump suggested on Sept 4 that the United States had a fresh concrete proposal aimed at ending the war, which is now in its fifth year. He did not, however, elaborate on what that proposal would be.

Witkoff and Kushner landed at Moscow’s governmental airport where they were met by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev. A motorcade then took the three men into the city, a Reuters witness said.

Dmitriev, who told Reuters in June that he had remained in contact with the US negotiators during a pause in their visits to Russia, took part in all their previous meetings with Putin alongside the Russian President’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov.

He also played a role in negotiating US sanction waivers for Russian oil in 2026.

Peskov said in a statement posted on the Kremlin’s channel in Max messenger that Putin had ordered the military not to strike Kyiv for three days, starting at midnight on Sept 5, in connection with Witkoff and Kushner’s visit to the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sept 5 he had spoken to the two US envoys who are set to visit Ukraine on Sept 6.

He added that Ukraine was prepared to refrain from strikes on Moscow from now through Sept 7 and expected Russia to reciprocate by halting strikes on Kyiv.

A vast gulf in positions

The Russian Defence Ministry reported 53 Ukrainian drones in Russian airspace on Sept 5, significantly fewer than the average seen in recent months.

Moscow is celebrating City Day on Sept 5, with hundreds of thousands of people taking part in open-air festivities across the city.

A vast gulf remains between Russia and Ukraine on how to end the 4½-year-old war, the deadliest in Europe since World War II.

A source close to the Kremlin, speaking before reports emerged of a possible trip by Trump’s envoys, said Putin was still intent on capturing more territory.

“There is no chance of reaching an agreement regarding the front line until Putin finishes securing the remaining part of the Donetsk region,” the source told Reuters, adding that the Kremlin leader was confident – based on reports from his commanders – that this would happen by the end of 2026.

Kremlin’s position ‘unshakeable’

Western military analysts see such a possibility as remote, given Moscow’s slow rate of progress. Ukraine refuses to surrender land that it has successfully defended at huge cost, and rejects such terms as tantamount to surrender.

The Kremlin said on Sept 4 the position that Putin set out in a speech two years ago – that Ukraine should cede the entire territory of four regions claimed by Russia and abandon its plan to join NATO – was “unshakeable”.

Since the last peace talks in February, each side has intensified long-range air attacks deep inside the other’s territory, while the war at sea has also escalated.

On the ground, the front lines have remained largely static, with Russia making only gradual gains in its attempt to take the whole of Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian oil refineries have led to a summer of fuel shortages and rising prices for Russian motorists, while some 30 attacks on giant warehouses belonging mostly to Wildberries, the country's biggest online retailer, have affected the consumer economy. REUTERS