U.S. President Donald Trump’s two envoys left Kyiv on Monday after presenting “more effective” proposals on ending the war with Russia to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“It’s not the same as it was before. This one is more effective,” a senior Ukrainian official told French media about the talks with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Despite this, the officials have not announced any concrete deadline for the conflict, with Zelensky saying earlier on Sunday that the war would continue into the winter. Following talks in Kyiv, Zelensky said Ukraine will meet with U.S. and European leaders “in the near future.”
The territorial issue remains a relevant one. I think such complex issues can only be resolved at the level of leaders. But the main thing is that today we have the opportunity to discuss everything – security guarantees, Ukraine’s future, and the prosperity plan. We are talking… pic.twitter.com/1ihau4qC3O
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 6, 2026
Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Kyiv comes just one day after the two envoys met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. On Saturday, the Kremlin told Americans it was feeling “confident” it would advance its occupation of Ukraine. But Witkoff said they had a “very meaningful discussion” and that the United States thinks it has the “ingredients” to achieve peace in Ukraine. A White House official said the plans discussed in Moscow “will be announced in the coming weeks.”
The sequencing of U.S. talks in Moscow and Kyiv suggests Washington is moving from exploratory diplomacy toward testing a potentially more concrete framework for ending the war. The Ukrainian description of the latest proposals as “more effective” is significant, but the absence of a disclosed timetable or agreed terms shows that major gaps may remain, particularly over territory, security guarantees, and the conditions for a ceasefire. The next development to watch is the expected U.S. announcement of the proposals in the coming weeks, alongside Zelensky’s planned consultations with American and European leaders. Any indication that Moscow and Kyiv are responding to the same negotiating framework—or that Washington is preparing specific security, territorial, or sanctions-related trade-offs—would be a stronger signal that the diplomacy is progressing toward substantive negotiations rather than another round of shuttle diplomacy. (AFP)
