MOSCOW — U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in the Russian capital on Saturday carrying what President Trump described as "a proposal to end the war" in Ukraine, opening a weekend of shuttle diplomacy that will take them to Kyiv on Sunday for their first visit to the Ukrainian capital.
The trip is the most concrete revival of a peace track that has been dormant for most of 2026, after Washington's attention shifted to its six-month war with Iran and prior rounds of talks — including a five-hour meeting between the same envoys and Russian President Vladimir Putin in December 2025 — ended without a breakthrough.
Kamianske and Kyiv
Even as Witkoff and Kushner were greeted at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport by Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev, Russian forces struck the southeastern Ukrainian city of Kamianske on Saturday morning, killing five workers at an industrial site and wounding five others, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Oleksandr Hanzha said. "A locksmith, an electrician, a plumber and a machinist. People of peaceful professions. They were simply working their shift. They were doing their job when enemy missiles cut off their lives," Hanzha said. Russia's Ministry of Defense said its forces had hit two metallurgical plants in the region that were "major suppliers of metal products for Ukraine's military production."
Truce offer
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would halt Ukrainian strikes on Russia for the duration of the envoys' trip and urged Moscow to do the same. Moscow did not publicly respond, NPR reported. Zelenskyy also blamed Russia for overnight drone attacks on the Kyiv and Boryspil international airports, tying them to the U.S. visit. "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 to civilian traffic since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The SBU strike
Hours before Trump announced the envoys' mission on Friday, a Russian drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine's Security Service — known as the SBU — in central Kyiv, the first strike on the building since the invasion began. Zelenskyy said the drone was aimed at the office of the agency's acting chief. The SBU is among the units running Ukraine's deep-strike drone campaign against Russian oil refineries and military logistics sites, a campaign that has intensified as ground fighting along the 1,250-kilometer front line has stalled.
What Moscow is signaling
Key disagreements between the warring sides remain on issues such as territory and security guarantees for Ukraine, the BBC reported, the same disputes that have stalled earlier rounds of American mediation. Witkoff and Kushner's arrival in Moscow follows a rare trip to the Russian capital just over a week ago by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, a meeting Trump last week described as "semi-routine." Trump himself framed the impasse on Friday in personal terms. "President Zelenskyy and President Putin truly hate each other," he told reporters, adding, "They have serious hate, and it’s getting in the way."
Witkoff and Kushner are scheduled to meet Putin in Moscow before flying to Kyiv on Sunday to see Zelenskyy, according to Axios reporting cited by the BBC — the first time either envoy has visited the Ukrainian capital since Trump returned to office.