US Envoys Heading to Moscow With Proposal to End Ukraine War

President Donald Trump said on Sept. 4 that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be presenting a peace proposal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine during upcoming visits to Moscow and Kyiv.

Trump confirmed Kushner and Witkoff’s visits to Moscow and Kyiv during a press conference in the Oval Office on Friday. The planned meetings with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators come after months of stalled negotiations.

Asked whether the two U.S. envoys would be presenting new peace proposals, the president said, “They’re bringing with them a proposal to end the war.”

“I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators,” Trump told reporters. “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 Epoch Times reached out to the White House for confirmation regarding when the meetings in Russia and Ukraine would take place but was referred back to the president’s comments.

Prior to Trump’s comments on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said tentative dates had been set for meetings with the U.S. envoys. In a Sept. 3 post on X, he noted that U.S. envoys were expected to hold a meeting in Moscow before arriving in Kyiv for a meeting with Ukrainian negotiators “in the coming days.”

“This is very important. It is important that America remain actively engaged,” Zelenskyy wrote. “We are ready to meet with them in Ukraine—properly and substantively.”

On Friday, Zelenskyy reiterated that the meetings were taking place, saying that it was “clearly established” that the U.S. envoys would visit both Ukraine and Russia in the coming days. Witkoff and Kushner will visit Moscow before meeting in Kyiv on Sunday, according to Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy also announced on Friday that Ukraine will not carry out any airstrikes while U.S. negotiators are traveling and will ensure that Russia’s airspace is functioning normally for the safety of the negotiators. The Ukrainian president called on Russia to do the same.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s goal was to make the upcoming meetings with the U.S. envoys as “constructive and substantive as possible.”

“We need to look for real options for how to move this war toward an end,” Zelenskyy stated. “We will see what proposals Steve and Jared bring and what they are told in Moscow in response.”

Witkoff and Kushner’s expected visit to Moscow followed CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s surprise visit to Moscow for meetings on Aug. 25.

Confirming Ratcliffe’s visit in August, Trump said the United States was “working very hard” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. He added that both Russia and Ukraine wanted to see the war ended as well.

Witkoff and Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in January to discuss the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has lasted for more than four years. Peace negotiations, however, appeared to stall after Ukraine refused to agree to Russia’s demands for the surrender of additional territory.

In addition to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Moscow has demanded that Ukraine surrender its ownership of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

While speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Thursday, Putin said there was “a chance” of reaching a peace deal with Ukraine. He added that Russia was “grateful to everyone who is trying to contribute to resolving this issue,” according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Putin suggested that for the conflict to end between Russia and Ukraine, the two countries would have to “first reach an agreement” between themselves.