Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner touched down at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport on September 5, carrying what President Trump described as a “proposal to end the war.” Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev greeted the pair on the tarmac, setting the stage for what could be the most consequential diplomatic push since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
The visit marks a restart of peace negotiations that had effectively stalled for months. And in a move that suggests at least some goodwill from the Kremlin, Russia announced a 72-hour halt to airstrikes on Kyiv starting at midnight on September 5, a direct response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request for a temporary ceasefire during the talks.
The diplomatic playbook
The envoys’ itinerary is unusually ambitious. After meetings in Moscow that may include a sit-down with President Vladimir Putin, Witkoff and Kushner are scheduled to fly to Kyiv on September 6. That leg of the trip carries its own symbolic weight: it would be their first visit to Ukraine’s capital.
Trump telegraphed the mission a day before departure, announcing on September 4 that his envoys would carry a formal peace proposal. The plan under discussion is reportedly a revised version of earlier US frameworks, now incorporating input from European allies and Ukrainian officials.
