Trump envoys take Ukraine peace proposal to Moscow

Two of President Donald Trump’s envoys have arrived in Moscow for talks on a new U.S. proposal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to Russian media, before a planned visit to Kyiv for discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were due in the Russian capital on Saturday and are expected to travel to Ukraine on Sunday. Trump told reporters Friday that the pair were carrying a proposal aimed at ending the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“We have an idea for peace,” Trump said. “I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators. They’ve done a great job, and we sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done. And there may be a good chance that we’ll do it.”

The BBC reported that neither Washington nor the Kremlin confirmed the envoys’ arrival in Moscow, but flight tracking data showed a U.S. government plane landing at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport after flying from Helsinki, Finland. The data showed the aircraft had arrived in Europe from the United States earlier in the day.

Axios reported that Witkoff and Kushner would separately meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy said in a social media post that he was preparing for their visit and wanted the talks with the United States to be productive.

“Our goal is to make the visit and the talks with the U.S. side as constructive and substantive as possible. We need to look for real options for how to move this war toward an end,” Zelenskyy said.

He also said he would not strike Russia while the envoys were in the country. According to the BBC, Zelenskyy said Friday he would guarantee the safety of Russian airspace during the visit and called for Russia to do the same for Ukraine.

The Kyiv stop would be the first visit to Ukraine by Witkoff and Kushner since Trump returned to office pledging to resolve the war. The BBC reported that the two have traveled to Moscow on multiple occasions during Trump’s current term, while delegations from Ukraine have attended talks in the United States over the past 18 months. CBS News reported that Witkoff and Kushner met Putin for five hours in December 2025 in talks described by a Russian official as “constructive,” but no breakthrough followed.

Trump told CBS News in September 2025 that he remained committed to seeking a peace deal. “I’ve been talking about it with President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” he said at the time. “Something is going to happen, but they are not ready yet. But something is going to happen.”

Those efforts later appeared to stall after a U.S. attack on Iran in February triggered a war that has lasted more than six months, CBS News reported.

The renewed diplomatic push comes as Russia and Ukraine continue trading long-range missile and drone attacks. Zelenskyy said Saturday that Russia had launched “demonstrative” strikes on airports in Kyiv and Boryspil overnight ahead of his planned meeting with the U.S. envoys.

“Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the US side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine and land at Kyiv Airport or Boryspil Airport,” Zelenskyy said. Ukraine’s airspace has been closed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Zelenskyy also said an overnight Russian strike on a civilian building in the Dnipro region killed four people and injured five others. CBS News reported that, just hours before Trump’s announcement, a Russian drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine’s SBU security service in central Kyiv, targeting the office of the agency’s acting chief. Zelenskyy said it was the first strike on the headquarters since the invasion began.

The Moscow visit follows a rare trip to the Russian capital by CIA Director John Ratcliffe just over a week earlier. There was no official comment from Washington or the Kremlin on those talks, which Trump described last week as “semi-routine.”