Overview
- U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a closed, substantive meeting in Moscow on Saturday and then traveled to Kyiv for multi‑stage talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team.
- Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Vladimir Putin ordered a 72‑hour halt to strikes on Kyiv beginning at midnight on Sept. 5 to facilitate the envoys’ visits.
- Officials from Moscow, Kyiv and the White House described the meetings as substantive and Witkoff said the talks produced "substantial progress" and advanced planning for additional three‑way Russia‑Ukraine‑U.S. sessions, though concrete proposals were not made public.
- Zelensky said the envoys brought new ideas touching on de‑escalation measures for energy, grain, power infrastructure and oil and gas exports, but he emphasized unresolved territorial questions and the need to prepare for a hard winter.
- U.S. and European participants signaled further steps will be announced in the coming weeks and some reporting says a fuller negotiation push may be timed after Russia’s Duma elections, while observers note the halt covered only Kyiv rather than a wider ceasefire.