Trump's emissaries arrived in Kyiv with new peace proposals – FT

Special envoys of the U.S. president, Steve Whitlock and Jared Kushner 6 spent more than four hours in Kyiv negotiations with President Volodymyr Zelensky, bringing updated versions of documents on ending the war. This is reported by the Financial Times. The meeting occurred a day after talks between the American envoys and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, but it did not result in a breakthrough toward ending the four-year war.

According to the publication, the Americans did not bring fundamentally new proposals, but instead tried to update previously prepared documents to reflect circumstances that changed after negotiations were halted in February — against the backdrop of the U.S. start of its war with Iran. Sources familiar with the talks told the Financial Times that the envoys tried to revive previous proposals and narrow gaps between Kyiv and Moscow.

"The issue of Donbas is not only a Donbas issue. It is, to be frank, a matter for the whole war," said President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The central issue of the negotiations remains the Donbas territory controlled by Ukraine: Russia claims this region as its own, but after years of fighting it has not been able to take it completely. According to the publication, about 75 percent of the eastern region is under Russian control, and this territory remains a red line for Zelensky, who insists that Ukraine will never cede this or any other occupied territory. The president acknowledged at a press conference after the meetings that the negotiators discussed territorial questions, but insisted that this issue should be resolved "at the leaders' level."

According to Jared Kushner, during the Kyiv talks the parties voiced "new ideas," the details of which he did not disclose. The participants agreed that the war is unlikely to end before winter, although the envoys, according to the FT, told Zelensky and his team that progress is still possible before the cold season. After the talks, Kushner said Washington hopes to resume trilateral talks involving Russia, Ukraine, and the United States, which were suspended after the start of the war in Iran.

Agreed to keep dialogue going despite the lack of breakthroughs

Whitlock and Kushner arrived in Kyiv by train, and the talks lasted over four hours — first at the Sofia Cathedral complex in the center of the capital, and then at the Mariinsky Palace, the official residence of the president. Putin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that the talks in Moscow on Saturday, which lasted more than three hours, were "timely and useful," but he did not disclose details of the American plan that Trump called a "proposal to end the war."

Even before the arrival of the American envoys, expectations in Ukraine about the visit's results were low. Kyiv MP, head of the Foreign Policy Committee Alexander Merezhko called the fact that both envoys first visited Moscow a "bad sign" and a possible sign that the United States would try to force Ukraine to adopt a "pro-Putin" plan.

In the past week, Russia launched an unprecedented series of daytime drone attacks on Kyiv, causing dozens of air alarms and disrupting the lives of more than 3,5 million residents of the capital. According to FT, five such alerts were announced on Saturday and one on Sunday. Zelensky previously accused Russian forces of deliberately bombing Kyiv's two main civilian airports on Saturday to prevent Whitlock and Kushner from landing there.

Earlier, Informator reported that Zelensky thanked the American team for the visit and stated that each such meeting brings closer a just peace, and Kushner stressed that Trump aims not only to end the war but to create conditions for a lasting peace. We also wrote that announcements of a trilateral meeting of Ukraine, the United States, and Russia may appear soon, although the format of negotiations has been discussed for more than a month, and final agreements are constantly postponed.