Overview
- Special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin for more than three hours on Saturday with no public agreement reported.
- The Kremlin said Putin ordered no strikes on Kyiv from Sept. 5–8 to facilitate the envoys’ travel but Russian forces continued attacks in other parts of Ukraine on Sept. 5.
- The Moscow meeting included senior Russian aides Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev and was followed by plans for the envoys to fly to Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- The envoys are acting as presidential representatives rather than a State Department negotiating team and were presented by the U.S. as carrying a proposal to end the war.
- A core obstacle remains Russia’s demand for territorial concessions that Ukraine rejects, leaving the mission’s prospects uncertain and civilians outside Kyiv still exposed to strikes.