U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner touched down in Moscow Saturday, launching a renewed diplomatic effort to bring an end to Russia’s grinding, years-long invasion of Ukraine, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announcing the pair would also make a historic first visit to Kyiv on Sunday.
According to the Kyiv Independent, the trip to Ukraine’s capital has been scrapped multiple times in recent weeks and could still fall through. Sources told the outlet that Russia has been pushing back against the visit behind the scenes.
“The Russians don’t want them to come here to Kyiv, and Witkoff is always sensitive to Russian sentiment,” the outlet reported, citing sources close to the matter. “They’re being told there that it’s dangerous.”
The high-stakes diplomatic mission comes as fighting between Russia and Ukraine has intensified sharply in recent months. Witkoff, 69, and Kushner, 45, who is President Trump’s son-in-law, were welcomed to Moscow by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, according to the Associated Press, which cited Russian state media. The two men’s last known trip to Moscow, where they sat down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, took place back in January.
Ahead of the envoys’ arrival, Zelensky pledged that Ukraine would hold its fire while the American diplomats were in the region, framing it as a goodwill gesture meant to protect the visiting negotiators.
“Today, it has been clearly established that U.S. envoys will be in Ukraine and Russia in the coming days,” Zelensky wrote. “We will ensure the normal functioning of Russian airspace so that the negotiators can arrive safely. We are looking out for them, not for Russia. There will be no air strikes from our side, and Russia must do the same.”
Zelensky added that Ukraine’s goal was to make the talks as “constructive and substantive as possible,” saying his government was eager to see what proposals Witkoff and Kushner would bring back from their conversations in Moscow.
Despite the pledge of restraint, Russia responded with deadly force just before the envoys’ arrival. Zelensky reported that Russian strikes hit a civilian enterprise in Kamianske, in the Dnipro region, killing four people and injuring five others. He said ordinary residential buildings were also damaged across multiple regions, including Kherson, Boryspil and the Kharkiv region, while drones struck shopping malls in Sumy and Mykolaiv.
Zelensky further noted that Russia carried out what he described as deliberate strikes on airports in Kyiv and Boryspil overnight, a target he suggested was directly tied to preparations for the American delegation’s potential arrival by air. He said Ukraine would adjust its own military posture in response but reaffirmed there would be no threats to the ongoing diplomacy from Ukraine’s side.
Russia also struck a key government building in Kyiv, the headquarters of Ukraine’s Secret Service, an agency involved in covert operations inside Russian territory, according to the Associated Press.
As Witkoff and Kushner press forward with their mission, the deadly strikes on the eve of their visit underscore just how fragile any path toward peace remains, even as American diplomats work to bring the two warring nations back to the negotiating table.
