September 06, 2026
President drops a hint about the outcome of talks
Talks between the US special envoys and Ukrainian leadership were substantive and productive, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this during a briefing following meetings with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Details of meeting
The head of state emphasized the importance of the US officials’ visit and said the sides discussed key agenda items in detail.
“You understand that none of this is happening for no reason. We are discussing everything,” Zelenskyy emphasized.
He also added that the US special envoys “did not come for nothing,” confirming the highly productive nature of the consultations.
Talks with Witkoff and Kushner in Kyiv
As previously reported, Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a separate one-on-one meeting with US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Following the talks in Kyiv, Ukraine, the United States, and European countries agreed to continue the dialogue aimed at achieving a just peace, while the format of the next round of consultations is still being worked out.
Also, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington is seeking a diplomatic resolution and stressed that concessions will be inevitable for both sides.
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/zelenskyy-witkoff-and-kushner-didn-t-come-1788724021.html
I beg Zelensky’s pardon if I take a grain of salt with his statement. I can’t imagine for even one second that those two treasonous ass-crawlers achieved anything positive.
DT editorial :
Once again, Donald Trump has turned his attention to the war in Ukraine, despatching his envoys to Moscow to discuss “substantive plans” for ending the conflict. The emissaries, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, also visited Kyiv on Sunday for the first time despite travelling several times to Russia on previous peace initiatives.
Their three hours of talks with Vladimir Putin were said to have been constructive and they travelled by train to Kyiv, bearing news of the outcome. On their return to the US, a plan will be drawn up and put to the Ukrainians.
What it might contain we do not know, but the Ukrainians are understandably nervous. Indeed, we can make an educated guess. Putin is not going to give up the territory in eastern Ukraine that is currently under Russian control, and that includes Crimea. To do so would be the end for him.
Equally, for Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to let Russia keep the spoils of its illegal aggression would be terminal and risk rendering the sacrifices and misery of the past four years pointless.
As tit-for-tat drone and missile attacks continued over the weekend, clearly it would benefit both countries, their peoples and the rest of the world for this conflict to end. The question, as ever in such wars, is at what price?
Before he entered the White House for the second time last year, Mr Trump predicted that he could end the war within 24 hours of taking office. Even by his standards it was an excessive boast and one that appeared to betray a failure to understand that not everything can be resolved as if it were a boardroom deal.
Since then, Mr Trump has mostly blamed alleged Ukrainian obduracy for the failure to stop the conflict, often praising Putin. Yet the Russian leader is evidently under massive pressure as the country’s economy buckles under strain and his people can see that Ukraine is far from beaten.
The drone strikes on Moscow and other targets, together with petrol shortages in an oil-rich nation, illustrate how Putin can no longer pretend that he is winning. He is weaker than ever, which means now is the time to take a tough line with the Russian leader and make him pay for the damage caused.
Is that really what Mr Trump and his emissaries have in mind? The Ukrainians are right to be sceptical.