Europe Joins a US Peace Shuttle It Did Not Design

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner left Kyiv on Monday after their first visit as US negotiators, with no deal to end Russia’s four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine. They had sat with Vladimir Putin on Saturday, then with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, and they asked both sides for land, security and political compromises they still would not name in public.

Britain, France and Germany walked into the last hour of the Kyiv talks. They hold the sanctions, the rebuilding money and much of the air defence that any settlement would actually use, and they were not in the Kremlin room where Putin set the terms the Americans then carried south.

The Envoys Finally Made It to Kyiv

Sunday was the first time either man had come to the Ukrainian capital as a US negotiator. They had been to Moscow several times. They arrived by train after Russian air raids made a flight hard to arrange, were greeted at the St Sophia complex, and then sat for several hours with Zelenskyy and his team.

Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, told reporters he had “heard new ideas” in Moscow and hoped a new round of US-mediated talks with Ukraine and Russia would be announced “in short order.” He said, “We made a lot of progress in Moscow,” and that he was “very encouraged” by the Ukrainian meetings. He also said both sides would have to “make some compromises” and narrow the issues between them.

Zelenskyy called the conversation “very substantive” and said Ukraine was ready for trilateral talks. He said the teams had discussed air defence supplies and energy support before winter, with Russia expected to bomb the power grid again. “In the last 10 to 12 months, I believe we have got stronger,” he said, adding that the United States and Europe had noted that.

He thanked the visitors in public as the talks were still running.

I thank U.S. President’s envoys Steve Witkoff @SEPeaceMissions and Jared Kushner @jaredkushner for their visit to Kyiv. We had a good conversation – several rounds already – and we will continue talking today. The main thing is to achieve peace for Ukraine – a dignified,… pic.twitter.com/IZGEfa3EMt

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 6, 2026

Kushner, whom the Kremlin listed as an entrepreneur and founder of Affinity Partners, told reporters the United States wanted to return to a trilateral format. Zelenskyy said the next session that evening would bring in national security advisers from Britain, France and Germany. The Americans left Kyiv by train on Monday.

THE WEEKEND SHUTTLE

1. 4 September: A Russian drone hits the SBU headquarters on Volodymyrska Street, opposite St Sophia Cathedral, in the first known strike on that building of the war.
2. 5 September: Witkoff and Kushner meet Putin at the Kremlin. Putin says strikes on Kyiv have stopped since midnight. The session runs three hours and 10 minutes.
3. 6 September: The envoys meet Zelenskyy in Kyiv. UK, French and German advisers join the final hour. Ukraine says it struck the Ryazan oil refinery about 480 km inside Russia overnight.
4. 7 September: A US official said Trump would hear from the envoys, then call Putin, then Zelenskyy. The Kremlin’s pause on Kyiv strikes was set to run until Monday.

A White House official said next steps would be announced in the coming weeks. No date, venue or agenda for a new trilateral round was published with the visit.

Putin Halted Strikes on Kyiv After the SBU Hit

The diplomatic window opened on a crater. On Friday a jet-powered drone struck the central SBU building, aimed, Zelenskyy said, directly at the office of acting chief Oleksandr Poklad. Poklad was not hurt. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 12 people were wounded. The fire was put out. A historic building at the St Sophia preserve had windows blown out.

Zelenskyy said he had instructed Poklad to prepare “an appropriate, tangible response and, where possible, one that mirrors this strike.” Russia did not comment on the target. Government buildings in the fortified centre of Kyiv are rarely hit in daylight, and this was the first known direct attack on the SBU headquarters since the 2022 invasion.

Witkoff thanked Putin in the Kremlin for endorsing a “no shoot policy in Kiev and in Moscow for these three days.” Putin said the request had come through intelligence channels and the foreign ministry. He said he had halted strikes on Kyiv from midnight on 5 September, and that Ukraine had cut strikes on Russian territory, including Moscow, “by an order of magnitude.”

He also drew a line. Ukrainian authorities, he said, had called for a broader three-day truce, “but we have never agreed on this with them.” The Kremlin said the Kyiv pause would run until Monday. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would refrain from strikes on Moscow through Monday. There was no matching halt on the 1,200 km (750-mile) front, and Russia bombarded other Ukrainian cities on Saturday.

Britain, France and Germany Walked In Late

The Europeans were not an afterthought in the war. They were an afterthought in the itinerary. National security advisers from Britain, France and Germany joined only the final hour in Kyiv, after the Americans had already taken Putin’s read into the room. Zelenskyy said that session covered possible security and economic guarantees and a post-war “prosperity plan.” He said he was grateful the Europeans were there. “Here we are all on the same side.”

They have to be, if a deal is more than a press conference. Washington can reopen a channel. It cannot lift EU measures on its own, and it cannot staff a long security guarantee with speeches from Florida. Since Trump cut US aid, European governments have been Ukraine’s main backers, including with a €90 billion ($104 billion) package approved this year. Sunday’s talks also went to air defence and winter fuel, which Kyiv will need from those same capitals if the fighting runs on.

WHAT EUROPE STILL CONTROLS

• Sanctions relief: EU measures on Russian finance, energy, trade and technology are decided unanimously by the 27, so Moscow cannot collect a US promise that Brussels has not voted.
• The July round: The Council adopted a 21st package of sanctions against Russia on 23 July, adding restrictions on banks, energy interests, shadow-fleet vessels and circumvention networks.
• Security pledges: Any force that is meant to deter another invasion would be drawn in large part from European armies already arming Ukraine.
• Winter support: Zelenskyy used Sunday to press for air defence and energy help, the items that decide whether Kyiv’s grid survives another bombing season.

That is why the last hour was not a courtesy. A US paper that trades land for sanctions, or land for a guarantee, is a draft until Paris, Berlin and London say yes. Putin has spent the past year arguing that Europe is “on the side of war” and that its terms are “absolutely unacceptable.” The Americans still went to him first, then asked Europe to sit down after the fact.

Why Donbas Still Blocks Any Settlement

Zelenskyy put the gap in one line. “The question of Donbas, I believe, is the question of this war.” Russia wants Ukrainian troops out of the belt of towns it has not captured in the east. Kyiv says it will not hand over that ground, or any other land Moscow occupies. Zelenskyy said territorial issues should be settled “at the level of leaders,” which is a request for a Putin meeting Trump has not scheduled.

Mick Ryan, a retired Australian major general who follows the war closely, wrote that the push “is attempting the same approach to diplomacy that has consistently failed,” using part-time envoys, an on-off calendar, and a habit of repeating Moscow’s “root causes” language. He also flagged Witkoff’s Kremlin small talk, in which the envoy told Putin that in retirement “yours will be right at the top” of the stories. The transcript of the opening, published by the Kremlin, records that line.

WHERE THE SIDES STILL STAND

A paper that circulated in Ukrainian media on Sunday listed a full ceasefire, a Ukrainian pullout from Donbas and part of Zaporizhzhia, a UN contingent, a ban on NATO, army limits, language clauses, and a peace treaty signed by a new Ukrainian government. None of the negotiators confirmed that text. The same cluster of demands, with small changes, has leaked before.

WHAT WE KNOW

• Confirmed talks: Moscow on 5 September and Kyiv on 6 September, with European advisers in the last Kyiv hour.
• Confirmed pause: A short halt on strikes against the two capitals, not on the front and not on other Ukrainian cities.
• Confirmed gap: Land in Donbas, and who sits at the table, remain unpublished and unresolved.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The leaked paper: Withdrawal lines, NATO bans, army caps and a UN buffer have not been owned by Witkoff, Kushner, Zelenskyy or the Kremlin.
• A leaders’ meeting: Zelenskyy wants one; nothing was announced.
• Trump’s calls: A US official said they were likely on 7 September, Putin first. The White House had not posted a readout when the envoys left Kyiv.

Treat the leak as a map of old pressure, not as the deal. If those terms were on the table, they would still need European votes on sanctions and troops, which is the part of the file the Kremlin did not have to hear on Saturday.

Moscow Talked Business as Well as Territory

Yury Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide, said the Kremlin session lasted three hours and 10 minutes, in a working format and then over dinner. Kirill Dmitriev, who runs the Russian Direct Investment Fund, sat in. Ushakov called the talks substantive, constructive and extremely frank. He said the Americans arrived prepared and “outlined a number of ideas regarding possible avenues for a settlement,” which he did not describe.

He did describe the rest. Putin, he said, pointed to “real advances” in the combat zone, voiced confidence that Russia would hit its goals, and stressed the need to remove all “root causes” of the conflict. The envoys, Ushakov said, pledged to use those assessments in Kyiv the next day. The talks, he added, were not limited to Ukraine. Economic matters and “potential major, mutually beneficial Russian-American projects” were discussed “in some detail.”

The situation we are to sort out today is, of course, a difficult one. I’d like to tell you that we find it comfortable to work with you, and, of course, we have a very high level of trust during this work.

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, Kremlin meeting with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, 5 September 2026

Putin asked the visitors to carry his thanks to Trump, who, he said, “does not stop his efforts” even while facing a difficult situation of his own. Witkoff thanked him for the release of Bob Gilman. Putin said the family should thank Trump, “it was he who made the appeal.” The opening, as published, is warm, personal and almost empty of Ukrainian voices. That is the channel Europe is being asked to underwrite.

What Trump Does With the Briefing

A US official said Trump would first hear from Witkoff and Kushner, then call Putin, then Zelenskyy, with those calls likely on 7 September. Zelenskyy has said a window still exists before the next US presidential election in 2028. He also said the war, “at the moment,” looked likely to continue this winter, and that Ukraine was counting on American agreements and European support if it does.

The only hard product of the shuttle, as of Monday, was a short, uneven pause on two capitals and a promise of more talks. The front stayed live. Other Ukrainian cities were hit on Saturday. Kyiv said it hit Ryazan on Sunday night. Putin refused a wider truce. Zelenskyy refused to treat Donbas as a local detail. Europe, which would have to pay, arm and vote for whatever paper comes next, was given an hour at the end of a trip designed in Washington and opened in Moscow.

If Trump gets on the phone, the order of the calls will tell Kyiv and the Europeans the same thing the itinerary already did. The men who hold the sanctions were not in the first room, and they are still the ones who have to live with the terms.