US envoys hope for new Ukraine-Russia talks soon after visits to both capitals

U.S. peace envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff heralded new momentum in peace talks after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Sunday as the ​Trump administration renewed its push to end Russia's four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine, Reuters reported. 

Kushner and Witkoff travelled from Moscow, where they held three hours of talks with Russian President ‌Vladimir Putin on Saturday but did not appear to secure a breakthrough in the conflict.

Witkoff, President Donald Trump's envoy, said they had "heard new ideas" in Moscow, which they did not detail, and they hoped a new round of U.S.-mediated Ukraine-Russia talks would be announced "in short order."

Zelenskiy praised the "very substantive" conversation with Witkoff and Kushner and said Ukraine was ready for trilateral talks. He said he also discussed air defense supplies and ​energy support for Ukraine ahead of winter, with Russia expected to bomb Ukraine's power grid again.

Previous rounds of U.S.-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 U.S. had a fresh proposal, though he did ⁠not elaborate.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described Saturday's meeting as "highly useful", while a White House official told Reuters that next steps would be announced in the coming weeks.

"We made a ​lot of progress in Moscow," Witkoff told reporters in Kyiv on Sunday, adding that he was "very encouraged" by his conversations with the Ukrainian team.

The Ukrainian president, who believes Washington will be ​key to any peace deal, has said a window of opportunity to make peace exists before the U.S. begins focusing on its next presidential election in 2028.

The U.S. envoys held several hours of talks with Ukrainian officials. British, French and German national security advisers, who were also in Kyiv, joined for the final hour.

During a break, Zelenskiy said officials discussed the ​possibility of security and economic guarantees for Kyiv, as well as a post-war "prosperity plan."

"In the last 10 to 12 months, I believe we have got stronger," Zelenskiy said, adding ​that the U.S. and Europe had noted this.