US envoys hold ‘substantive’ talks with Zelenskyy in first visit to Kyiv

The meeting comes a day after the US’s Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomes United States President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on September 6, 2026 [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters]

United States special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on ending Russia’s war against his country, marking their first visit to Kyiv since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.

The meeting on Sunday came a day after the two met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

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“It is very important that the delegation has arrived to see us. We have been waiting a long time for Steve and Jared, Witkoff and Kushner,” Zelenskyy said, thanking US President Donald Trump for “allowing them to come” despite the war.

After the meeting, Witkoff said the US team had been “very encouraged” by what he described as a “substantive, important” discussion.

On his part, Kushner said Trump wanted “not just to figure out how we end the current war, but how do we create the right conditions and arrangements for a long-term, durable peace”.

Earlier, Zelenskyy published a video of himself meeting Trump’s envoys in central Kyiv, saying, “Talks have begun.”

Ukraine’s top security officials and negotiators were also present, along with several European national security advisers. Zelenskyy said Europeans would participate in some of the talks with the US envoys.

“We are expecting one session of our talks, and then another session will be held with the European NSAs [national security advisers]. Several important sessions,” he said.

The US envoys arrived in the Ukrainian capital by train from Poland, hoping to revive negotiations to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II after a summer of heightened tensions. While Witkoff and Kushner have visited Moscow eight times, they have never held talks in Kyiv until now.

Zelenskyy took the US envoys to see Kyiv’s historic Saint Sophia’s Cathedral, which sits opposite the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) security building that was hit by a Russian drone on Friday.

Moscow’s four-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Previous rounds of US-mediated peace talks encouraged by Trump, who campaigned on a promise to quickly end the war, have yielded few results. He suggested on Friday that the US had a fresh proposal, though he did not elaborate.

‘Highly useful’ meeting

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described Saturday’s meeting in Moscow, which ran more than three hours, as “highly useful”, while a White House official told the Reuters news agency that the next steps would be announced in the coming weeks.

Ushakov called the talks “extremely frank”, saying the US team “put forward a number of ideas on possible routes to a settlement”, though he gave no details.

In televised comments before those talks, Putin said Russia would ensure the safety of the envoys while in Kyiv. “We will do everything that depends on us to ensure the safety of the negotiation process and mediators such as yourselves,” Putin told Witkoff and Kushner.

Earlier on Saturday, Putin had thanked Trump for persisting in his efforts to end the war despite it being “not simple”.

Trump said again on Friday that his envoys were bringing a “proposal” to end the fighting. “We have an idea for peace,” he said, without elaborating.

US efforts have so far failed to bring about a breakthrough in the war, in part because of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Meanwhile, Russia has occupied large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, and Putin has insisted Moscow is intent on seizing the rest of the east.

In previous talks, the two sides have remained far apart on a range of key issues, including the future of Ukraine’s eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. Russia has demanded Ukraine’s withdrawal from an entrenched belt of towns that it still controls there, but Kyiv has refused, reckoning it can still hold out for years.

For Ukraine, hard security guarantees from its European allies and the US are crucial to deter Russia from invading again.

No strikes on capitals

Both Russia and Ukraine have pledged not to strike each other’s capital for three days around the US team’s visit. Yet despite the ceasefire agreement for the two cities, fighting continued elsewhere.

The Ukraine Air Force said Russia had attacked overnight with 108 drones and missiles. It also said on Sunday that it had struck the Ryazan oil refinery, about 480km (298 miles) inside Russia, overnight, causing a fire.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry said it had shot down 400 drones in the past 24 hours, according to the Interfax news agency.

It added that strikes were carried out during the day on Ukrainian infrastructure facilities used by the country’s armed forces, as well as drone storage sites.

此次会晤的前一天，美国财政部长贾里德·库什纳和史蒂夫·威特科夫在莫斯科会见了俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京。

2026年9月6日，乌克兰总统泽连斯基在乌克兰首都基辅欢迎美国总统特朗普的女婿贾里德·库什纳和美国特使史蒂夫·威特科夫。[Valentyn Ogirenko/路透社]

美国特使贾里德·库什纳和史蒂夫·威特科夫与乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基举行了会谈，讨论结束俄罗斯对乌克兰的战争。这是自2022年2月俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰以来，他们首次访问基辅。

周日的会晤是在两人前一天在莫斯科会见俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京之后举行的。

问题 1（共 3 题）：也门政府在对抗胡塞武装的军事行动中取得了多大的进展？

列表 2（共 3 项）：美国在拉丁美洲的军事化可能呈现的景象

列表 3/3：中国和尼泊尔竞相寻找洪水过后12天仍失踪的数千人

泽连斯基说：“代表团的到来非常重要。我们已经等史蒂夫、贾里德、维特科夫和库什纳很久了。”他感谢美国总统唐纳德·特朗普“允许他们前来”，尽管当时正值战争时期。

会后，维特科夫表示，美国队对这次他称之为“实质性、重要”的讨论感到“非常鼓舞”。

库什纳则表示，特朗普“不仅想弄清楚如何结束当前的战争，还想弄清楚如何创造合适的条件和安排，以实现长期、持久的和平”。

此前，泽连斯基发布了一段自己在基辅市中心会见特朗普特使的视频，并表示“会谈已经开始”。

乌克兰高级安全官员和谈判代表以及几位欧洲国家安全顾问也出席了会议。泽连斯基表示，欧洲方面将参与与美国特使的部分会谈。

他说：“我们预计会先举行一次会谈，然后还会与欧洲各国国家安全顾问举行另一次会谈。这将是几场重要的会谈。”

美国特使从波兰乘火车抵达乌克兰首都基辅，希望在经历了夏季紧张局势升级后，重启谈判，以结束二战以来欧洲最严重的冲突。尽管维特科夫和库什纳曾八次访问莫斯科，但此前从未在基辅举行过会谈。

泽连斯基带领美国特使参观了基辅历史悠久的圣索菲亚大教堂，该教堂位于乌克兰安全局（SBU）大楼对面，该安全大楼于周五被俄罗斯无人机击中。

莫斯科对乌克兰长达四年半的入侵已造成数十万人死亡，数百万人流离失所。

此前，在特朗普的斡旋下，美国曾多次促成和平谈判，而特朗普竞选时也承诺会尽快结束战争，但这些谈判收效甚微。周五，他暗示美国提出了一项新的方案，但并未详细说明。

“非常有用的”会议

克里姆林宫助手尤里·乌沙科夫称周六在莫斯科举行的这场持续三个多小时的会议“非常有益”，而一位白宫官员告诉路透社，下一步措施将在未来几周内宣布。

乌沙科夫称会谈“非常坦诚”，并表示美国团队“提出了一些可能的解决方案”，但他没有透露细节。

在会谈前的电视讲话中，普京表示，俄罗斯将确保特使们在基辅期间的安全。“我们将尽一切努力确保谈判进程和像你们这样的调解人的安全，”普京对维特科夫和库什纳说。

周六早些时候，普京感谢特朗普坚持不懈地努力结束战争，尽管这“并不容易”。

特朗普周五再次表示，他的特使们正在提出一项结束冲突的“方案”。他说：“我们有一个和平方案”，但没有详细说明。

迄今为止，美国的努力尚未在战争中取得突破，部分原因是美以对伊朗发动的战争。

与此同时，俄罗斯占领了乌克兰东部和南部的大片地区，普京坚称莫斯科有意夺取乌克兰东部的其余地区。

在之前的会谈中，双方在一系列关键问题上仍存在巨大分歧，包括乌克兰东部卢甘斯克和顿涅茨克地区的未来。俄罗斯要求乌克兰从其仍控制的一系列城镇中撤军，但基辅方面拒绝了这一要求，认为乌克兰仍能坚守数年。

对乌克兰而言，来自欧洲盟友和美国的硬性安全保障对于阻止俄罗斯再次入侵至关重要。

首都不罢工

俄罗斯和乌克兰都承诺，在美国代表团访问前后三天内，不会对对方首都发动袭击。然而，尽管两国达成了停火协议，但其他地区的战斗仍在继续。

乌克兰空军称，俄罗斯连夜出动108架无人机和导弹发动袭击。乌克兰空军周日还表示，俄罗斯连夜袭击了位于俄罗斯境内约480公里（298英里）的梁赞炼油厂，引发火灾。

与此同时，据国际文传电讯社报道，俄罗斯国防部称，在过去24小时内击落了400架无人机。

声明还补充说，当天对乌克兰武装部队使用的基础设施以及无人机存储地点进行了袭击。