KYIV: US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are set to arrive in Kyiv on Sunday in their first visit to the Ukrainian capital as part of a renewed push for peace in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The visit by the emissaries follows a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday. The visits by Witkoff and Kushner, who is also US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, are an attempt to revive peace talks during escalating aerial attacks by both sides.
The air war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified as troops have struggled to make progress along the 1,250-km front line. Russia has recently been using fast-flying, jet-powered drones, and the recurring wail of air-raid sirens has become part of daily life in Kyiv.
Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to pause strikes on each other's capitals while the talks take place.
Washington's push to end the fighting has lost momentum as US attention focused for the past six months on the Iran war. The last known visit to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, was in January when they also held talks with Putin at the Kremlin.
Saturday's meeting in Moscow lasted more than three hours behind closed doors and ended without announcements of any breakthroughs. Putin's foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, described them afterward as constructive, frank and useful but didn't talk about specific outcomes.
Moscow offered its “comprehensive assessment” of the battlefield situation in Ukraine, but also that the conversation was not purely focused on Russia's invasion, Ushakov said.
“Economic issues and potentially large, mutually beneficial joint projects for Russia and America were discussed in considerable detail,” he said.