Special Envoy Steve Witkoff expressed optimism over the meeting with Russian and Ukrainian leaders over the weekend in hopes of achieving a peace agreement to end the war.
“At President Trump’s direction, United States negotiators visited both Moscow and Kyiv in order to facilitate additional dialogue to end the Russia-Ukraine War,” a statement posted to Witkoff’s X account explained on Monday. “Ahead of the trip, the Russians and Ukrainians agreed to a three-day no-shoot policy to enable these discussions to occur.”
At President Trump’s direction, United States negotiators visited both Moscow and Kyiv in order to facilitate additional dialogue to end the Russia-Ukraine War. Ahead of the trip, the Russians and Ukrainians agreed to a three-day no-shoot policy to enable these discussions to… pic.twitter.com/7oj7C2Qp2p
— Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (@SEPeaceMissions) September 7, 2026
“In Kyiv, the delegations were also joined by national security advisors from the United Kingdom, Germany, and France to collaborate on the path forward. Substantive progress was made, including movement on scheduling additional trilateral talks. President Trump is working hard to stop the killing and work towards a lasting and durable peace,” the statement continued.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed the desire to “keep diplomacy going.”
A meeting with the negotiating team following our talks with the U.S. President’s envoys in Kyiv. We held three rounds of negotiations. Representatives of the E3 – France, the UK, and Germany – joined us too. Yesterday, I also had a separate tête-à-tête with Steve and Jared to… pic.twitter.com/2BeIxtdYLy
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 7, 2026
“We had substantive discussions about our air defense needs, the relevant technological cooperation, and the winter package we need. Our partners know what can bear fruit and what must bear fruit ahead of winter. We are coordinating our next steps,” he posted on Monday. “We are preparing the next meetings and communications. Ukraine’s proposals are constructive, and they always will be.”
A special envoy for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kirill Dmitriev, also said that President Donald Trump and Putin have “positively assessed Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s visit to Moscow and Kiev” on a phone call, the envoy posted on Tuesday.
Russian readout: Putin and Trump positively assessed Witkoff and Kushner’s visit to Moscow and Kyiv. Trump said he wants a breakthrough on Ukraine during his presidency and stressed that ending the conflict could open the way to a major restoration of Russia–US relations.
— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) September 8, 2026
The president told Townhall last week that in order to do a full summit with Putin again, he would like to see a resolution on the table.
"Oh, he'd do it if I wanted him. But I want to do it when we're ready to do a peace deal,” he said, as the war has been ongoing since early 2022.
“I wanna do it when that war is ending, and I think we will,” he said.