U.S. Envoys Begin Moscow Visit With No New Ceasefire Announced

September mission proceeds amid attacks

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Sept. 5 for talks on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev met them at the airport, according to the Associated Press, which cited Russian state media.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the envoys would travel to Kyiv on Sept. 6 after Moscow. The trip would be their first known visit to Kyiv; their previous known Moscow visit was in January 2026.

Ukraine said it would conduct no airstrikes during the envoys’ diplomatic travel window and asked Russia to reciprocate. Moscow had not publicly accepted the request when AP reported the envoys’ arrival.

Fighting continued during the mission. Ukraine said Russia launched 167 attack drones overnight and that 128 were shot down or suppressed. Russia said it downed 53 Ukrainian drones. Neither side’s battlefield figures were independently verified.

May truce was a separate agreement

The three-day ceasefire associated with the diplomatic push was announced on May 8 for May 9-11, not during the September visit. President Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy had accepted the arrangement, and Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov confirmed Russian acceptance and an intended exchange of 1,000 prisoners per side, according to AP.

The May arrangement did not establish a durable cessation of hostilities. Ukraine reported continued frontline attacks and casualties, while Russia alleged more than 1,000 Ukrainian violations. Those accounts directly conflicted, as AP reported.

Ukraine reported an initial stage of the proposed prisoner exchange on May 15, with 209 people returned: 205 military personnel and four civilians. Zelenskyy’s office credited U.S. mediation. The reviewed Ukrainian statement confirms that initial return and does not establish whether every stage of the proposed exchange was completed.

Settlement positions remain unresolved

Russia’s publicly stated settlement position remained unchanged before the September visit. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine surrender the full territory of four regions claimed by Russia and abandon NATO membership, according to a Reuters report published by Investing.com. Ukraine has not accepted those conditions.

The Moscow-to-Kyiv itinerary gives Washington a direct channel to both governments. No verified new ceasefire, negotiating framework, territorial compromise, or enforcement mechanism accompanied the envoys’ arrival.

Ukraine’s airstrike pause created a limited diplomatic-security window. Russia’s response to the request for reciprocal restraint remained uncertain, and the reported overnight attacks showed that military operations were continuing alongside the talks.

It was also unclear what proposal the envoys carried, whether they would meet Putin, and whether the planned Kyiv visit would proceed. The central unresolved issues include occupied territory, security guarantees, NATO alignment, sanctions relief, and enforcement of any ceasefire.