Witkoff and Kushner arrive in Kyiv after Putin talks in Moscow

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday for their first official visit to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, part of a renewed push for peace. Their trip followed talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday, aimed at reviving negotiations amid escalating aerial attacks by both sides.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ready for a “constructive” discussion with the U.S. representatives. In a Telegram post, he said Ukraine wanted to bring the war’s end closer and needed peace, security guarantees and a just, sustainable postwar settlement; he said Ukrainian proposals were ready. Washington’s effort to end the fighting has lost momentum as the United States focused for the past six months on the Iran war. The envoys’ last known Moscow visit was in January, when Witkoff and Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, also met Putin at the Kremlin.

Saturday’s closed-door Moscow meeting lasted more than three hours and ended without an announced breakthrough. Putin foreign-policy adviser Yuri Ushakov called it constructive, frank and useful, without detailing outcomes. He said Moscow gave a “comprehensive assessment” of the battlefield situation, while noting that the discussions were not exclusively about Ukraine: economic issues and potentially large, mutually beneficial joint projects for Russia and the United States were also discussed in considerable detail.

The air war has intensified while troops struggle to advance along the 1,250-kilometre front line. Russia has recently used fast, jet-powered drones, and recurring air-raid sirens have become part of daily life in Kyiv. Putin and Zelenskyy had agreed to pause strikes on each other’s capitals during the talks, but officials said both sides exchanged fire overnight into Sunday.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Russian attacks across several regions killed one person and injured at least 10 overnight. Drone strikes in Zaporizhzhia killed a 74-year-old man and wounded three others, while a drone damaged an apartment building in the Khmelnytskyi region and injured seven people. Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 82 of 108 drones launched by Russia overnight, along with six missiles.

In Russia’s Belgorod border region, local authorities said a Ukrainian drone hit a vehicle, killing a man and seriously wounding a woman. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences shot down 258 Ukrainian drones overnight over 14 Russian regions, occupied Crimea, and the waters of the Black and Azov seas.

Dozens gathered in Kyiv at 9 a.m. Sunday for the nationwide daily moment of silence for Ukraine’s fallen soldiers. Nataliia Lipei, 67, whose son Viktor was killed in December 2022, said she has travelled from city to city to take part despite a health condition and hopes the Moscow and Kyiv talks will end the war. Oleksandr Pastukhov, 27, a video editor at the commemoration, was doubtful the envoys’ visit would change anything, citing earlier delegations and what he described as a three-day ceasefire that ended after only a few hours.