Putin tells US envoys war situation ‘not simple' as talks begin

World admin September 5, 2026 0 Comments

Putin tells US envoys war situation ‘not simple’ as talks begin

Russian President Vladimir Putin opened talks in the Kremlin with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner by calling the situation the sides have to resolve “not a simple one,” and asked them to pass on his best wishes to President Donald Trump.

The meeting got underway after Putin ordered Russian forces to pause airstrikes on Kyiv, with the two U.S. officials preparing to travel on to the Ukrainian capital for the first time since the war began.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the Kremlin had received information that Kyiv would also halt fire for three days, and would reciprocate. Witkoff and Kushner landed in Moscow on Saturday and Putin plans to meet both, Peskov said.

Expectations for the visit are low, though, according to people close to the Kremlin. Multiple previous trips to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner failed to achieve progress and there’s no reason to believe they’re bringing acceptable proposals now, the people said.

Putin is ready to stop the war only on his own terms, and Moscow’s demands are getting tougher because it believes it has the military edge over Ukraine, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters.

People familiar with the thinking in Kyiv said Ukraine is also pessimistic about making meaningful progress around the Witkoff-Kushner visit. The U.S. envoys are expected to push previous ideas like making Donbas an economic free zone, which Russia has already rejected, the people said.

Still, Peskov on Saturday cautioned against jumping ahead of any new proposals, and asked to wait for Putin’s meeting with the U.S. pair, which he said could be fairly lengthy. Outside analysts applauded renewed engagement from Washington after a gap of several months, especially at a time when hostilities in the war, now well into its fifth year, are amping up again.

Ahead of the talks, Putin spent part of Saturday marking Moscow’s City Day. He appeared at the Zaryadye Park adjacent to Red Square with Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, congratulating him on being named a Hero of Labor, and met the five figures leading the United Russia party into the State Duma elections this month.

Witkoff and Kushner, meanwhile, had lunch at a Moscow restaurant with Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy for economic cooperation with the U.S., Russian media reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that he’d spoken with the U.S. envoys after their arrival in Moscow.

“From the moment of this conversation, we are ready to observe a ceasefire in airstrikes against the cities involved in the negotiation process,” Zelenskyy said. “From now through the end of Saturday, as well as on Sunday and Monday, Ukraine is ready to refrain from strikes on Moscow, and we expect the Russians to do the same regarding Kyiv.”

Despite the temporary halt in strikes floated by Putin, air-raid sirens sounded on and off in Kyiv on Saturday afternoon and an attack was reported in Khmelnyskyi in western Ukraine, with four people injured.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said his envoys were “bringing with them a proposal to end the war,” without elaborating.

Kushner and Witkoff plan to travel to Ukraine on Sunday in what would be their first visit there since the war began, Zelenskyy said. Kyiv’s goal is to make the visit “as constructive and substantive as possible,” he added.

Analysts were split on what the trip can achieve. Alexey Gromyko, director of the Institute of Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said there’s a chance the visit gives fresh impetus to efforts to reach mutually acceptable terms on Ukraine.

The key question is whether Washington is prepared to engage with the negotiating process on an ongoing basis “rather than returning to it only once every six months,” he said.

Sam Charap, a senior political scientist at the Rand Corp., called the Witkoff-Kushner visit timely “since the current escalation is spiraling rapidly and the parties left to themselves seem likely to continue upping the ante.”

A European Union diplomat questioned the sequencing of the trip, with the U.S. envoys traveling Moscow before what will be their visit to Kyiv.

“Diplomacy actually works, and we have to try to make sure that we talk first to those who are our allies,” Jovita Neliupšienė, the EU’s ambassador to Washington, said on “Bloomberg This Weekend.”

“Moscow hasn’t changed its war aims” and “for us Europeans, the top priority still remains the same: giving Ukraine everything it needs to defend itself,” she said.